KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — RHB Research Institute has revised upward its earnings forecast for Pos Malaysia Bhd's financial years (FY) 2015 and 2016 by three per cent and four per cent respectively.

In a note, RHB said the positive revision was because it is still positive over Pos Malaysia's longer term-prospects.

As at 10.27am, Pos Malaysia's shares rose eight sen to RM5.06 with 100 lots transacted.

RHB Research said Pos Malaysia was still in the midst of its five-year transformation plans, the risk of which stems from the volatility in earnings, resulting from unavoidable upfront expansion costs.

However, the management remains positive that the company can chart positive growth on a full-year basis.

“We expect the overall margin to inch up higher, once the integrated parcel centre is up and running in FY16, which would facilitate automated parcel sorting.

“This, coupled with the growing demand for courier services and growth of its courier unit, makes the company hopeful of being able to offset the declining trend in the mail segment,” it said.

RHB Research believes the potential development of Pos Malaysia's landbank in Brickfields remains a rerating catalyst.

It has maintained its “buy” recommendation on Pos Malaysia with a new target price of RM5.60 per share from RM5.70 previously. — Bernama