KUALA LUMPUR – Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PetDag), the marketing arm of national oil giant Petronas, has budgeted about RM500 million in capital expenditure (capex) for the financial year ending December 31, 2021 (FY21).
“The capex will be spent to renew some petrol stations, acquire new strategic sites, and enhance our non-fuel business that includes Kedai Mesra and food solutions services,” said head of retail business Khalil Muri.
He said there are more than 1,000 Petronas stations and 800 Kedai Mesra nationwide, and the company intends to add about 1% of stations annually to secure the highest presence and biggest network in Malaysia.
Despite the rising number of Covid-19 cases, he said, the firm remains positive on the outlook of its retail segment in FY21, backed by improved crude prices, a return to normality in terms of traffic volume, and higher demand in its non-fuel business.
Khalil was speaking during a virtual press conference for Bernama, The Star and Harian Metro on Friday.
Businesses offered under PetDag’s retail segment include fuel and non-fuel products and services, such as Kedai Mesra, Petronas Smartpay and the Petronas Mesra loyalty programme.
Khalil said the international benchmark Brent crude oil price, which has risen to between US$65 and US$66 (RM267 and RM271) per barrel from an average of US$41.96 last year, will help boost retail revenue in 2021.
“This is because higher oil prices will help drive our overall profitability.”
He said the company has seen an increase in its non-fuel business as people started returning to the workplace and took advantage of the convenience offered by ready-to-eat meals.
“For this year, we intend to grow our non-fuel business by 15% to 20%, and sell more fuel by about 5% to 10% from 2020, which will contribute to our growth in the retail segment.”
On the new Petronas Primax 97 with Pro-Race launched last December, he said this “best-ever fuel” offered by PetDag received a positive customer response.
Overall, he expects the retail segment to contribute some 40% to the group’s total revenue for FY21, slightly lower than the 47% contributed in FY19, as the aviation industry is still taking a big hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In its filing with Bursa Malaysia in February, PetDag said retail segment revenue decreased by RM4.19 billion year-on-year for FY20, mainly due to a decrease in average selling prices by 16%, as well as a lower sales volume of 13%, in tandem with decreased demand.
On the average selling price, Khalil does not expect increasing fuel prices to fundamentally affect demand.
The government has capped the retail price of RON95 at RM2.05 per litre and RM2.15 for diesel, while RON97 is floated according to the market price. – Bernama, April 25, 2021
