KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Boustead Holdings Bhd’s net loss for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 (Q1 2020) widened to RM73.1 million from RM22.4 million in Q1 2019.

Revenue fell by 10 per cent to RM2.3 billion from RM2.5 billion previously, due to lower revenue from the group’s industrial, property, heavy industries, trading, finance and investment divisions.

However, its pharmaceutical division posted a higher revenue of RM819.9 million in Q1 2020 versus RM786.1 million in Q1 2019, mainly due to stronger demand from the Indonesian operation, the group said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

“As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent movement control order, business activities essentially came to a halt in many industries.

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“The group was not spared the brunt of this, as most of our divisions were affected, impacting earnings for the first quarter,” said chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin in a separate statement.

However, he is confident that Boustead Holdings’ ongoing transformation exercise will enable the group to weather through the challenging situation this year, and added that the group aims to strengthen its operations and boost its performance in pursuit of brighter prospects for the next three years. — Bernama