BACKED by substantial gains relating to the initial public offering of its Salalah company in Oman, Sembcorp Industries posted a 40.4 per cent surge in third-quarter net profit to $254.4 million, from $181.2 million a year ago.

Turnover for the three months ended Sept 30 was up 31 per cent at $2.97 billion as falls in the utilities and urban development segments were more than offset by rises in the marine and others/corpo-rate segments.

The net profit attributable to equity-holders translated into earnings per share of 14.15 cents, 39.6 per cent higher than the 10.14 cents a year earlier.