KUALA LUMPUR (May 26): Malaysia Steel Works KL Bhd (Masteel) — whose shares were suspended since May 12 — announced that Bursa Malaysia has rejected its application to extend the submission of its financial result for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 (1QFY15).

According to Masteel, the reason for the delay to issue its first quarterly result (1QFY15) is due to ongoing review by special auditor UHY Advisory (KL) Sdn Bhd, which is conducting an independent and comprehensive review of the issues raised by its external auditor Messrs Nexia SSY.

The special review is being conducted on its account for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14), which is expected to be completed in six weeks from April 30, 2015, the steelmaker said.

“In view of the above, Masteel is not able to furnish its 1QFY15 result to Bursa, as the company needs the finalisation of the annual financial statement (AFS) 2014, in order to have the comparative information and corresponding financial figures, aside the brought forward figures from FY14 to the opening figures in the first quarterly report,” Masteel said in a filing this evening.

To recap, Masteel had on March 27 this year, announced that its external auditor Messrs Nexia SSY was not able to express an opinion on its FY14 financial statement, due to various issues that include the classification, description and recoverability of various transactions that it had carried-out in FY14.

In FY14, Masteel announced that its unaudited net profit plunged 41.5% to RM15.797 million or 6.98 sen per share, from RM27.01 million or 12.38 sen per share in FY13; while revenue grew 5.56% to RM1.45 billion, from RM1.37 billion a year ago.

As at Dec 31, 2014, Masteel has a total borrowing of RM313.3 million — equivalent to a gearing ratio of 0.54 times, while its cash and equivalents stood at RM36.01 million.

Masteel's share price was last traded at 62 sen, for a market capitalisation of RM151.3 million.

The company is controlled by its managing director and chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Tai Hean Leng @ Tek Hean Leng, who holds a 31.23% stake.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations)