KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Pos Malaysia Bhd closed its latest financial year in the red, incurring its third — and largest — quarterly loss of the year in the fourth quarter (Q4) ended March 31, 2019.
The group swung to a net loss of RM141.13 million in Q4 from a net profit of RM29.03 million a year earlier, while revenue sank 9 per cent to RM594.70 million.
The company attributed the weak results mainly to lower revenue contribution from the courier and logistics segments, higher “other expenses” from a RM39.62 million impairment loss on goodwill in Pos Logistics, and increased cost of sales and operating expenses.
For the whole year, Pos Malaysia chalked up a net loss of RM165.75 million against a net profit of RM93.25 million in the preceding year.
Revenue dropped to RM2.36 billion from RM2.47 billion, previously on continued weak mail, international and logistics business performance at Pos Malaysia and Pos Logistics.
In a statement today, group chief executive officer Syed Najib Syed Md Noor said the loss was a result of the continuing decline in its mail volume at 13 per cent year-on-year, coupled with high costs associated with the universal service obligation.
“We are working closely with the regulator for an overall tariff re-balancing to update the tariff that was last changed in 2010, to reflect the growing costs to serve the nation,” he said, noting that there was an increase of 17 per cent in new postal addresses to 8.9 million addresses from 7.6 million five years ago.
“We expect a positive outcome from the regulators on the tariff re-balancing.
“An impairment was also made for goodwill in Pos Logistics due to increasing competition which has resulted in performance that is below expectations. This impairment is a one-off expense.” he added. — Bernama
