KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): National postal service Pos Malaysia Bhd saw its net loss for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 (1QFY22) narrow to RM30.37 million from RM46.78 million a year ago due to effective cost management across the board.
Losses per share was trimmed to 3.88 sen from 5.98 sen, according to the national service courier in its filing with Bursa Malaysia.
Quarterly revenue in 1QFY22 fell 18.63% year-on-year to RM484.35 million from RM595.28 million in 1QFY21 mainly due to lower revenue from its postal and logistics segments.
The group said that the 25% decline in revenue in the postal segment to RM320.73 million from RM425.28 million was primarily due to a drop in courier business. This was due to the decrease in overall parcel volume as consumers’ purchasing trend shifted from online shopping to bricks-and-mortar shopping following the relaxation of the Movement Control Order.
“In addition, major ecommerce players leveraged on their insourced delivery capabilities while international players pursue penetration strategies to capture higher market share in courier business,” said Pos Malaysia.
It added that despite the lower revenue, the loss before tax at the segment was reduced due to effective cost management effort to optimise operating cost evidenced in lower transportation and delivery cost recorded during the financial period.
“The recent Mutual Separation Scheme (MSS) exercise has also contributed to lower staff cost. Efforts to increase products yield resulted in higher average revenue per item (ARPI) during the period,” it said.
The logistics segment’s revenue declined 25.07% to RM75.83 million from RM101.2 million. “The decrease is mainly from freight management business (especially from freight forwarding) where included in the revenue last year was an exceptionally high demurrage and detention charges of RM19.1 million. The coal export ban imposed by the Indonesian government in January 2022 also adversely impacted the revenue from the marine business,” the group said.
The aviation segment saw higher revenue of RM56.8 million compared with RM43.2 million a year ago, and recorded a turnaround to profit before tax of RM3.7 million mainly due to increased contribution from higher cargo tonnage handled and increased number of flights resulting in increased ground handling revenue during the period.
No dividends were declared for the quarter under review.
Compared with the immediate preceding quarter, Pos Malaysia also narrowed its net loss from RM123.21 million in 4QFY21, while revenue decreased 8.37% from RM528.59 million.
With the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions and as the country continues to open up both domestically and internationally, there are upside opportunities moving forward, said Pos Malaysia.
However, it said the challenges related to marketplaces continuing to insource, inflationary pressures on costs and demand, and the lack of fair competition in the last-mile delivery of parcels, will continue to create yield pressures.
“Management is intensifying action plans to deliver on the transformation of the operating model. With a strategic focus on executing the cultural transformation programme, maintaining a market-leading next-day service level, driving cost efficiencies, increasing parcel yields and ensuring the optimum customer experience at every touchpoint.
“While the headwinds from rising inflation, salary adjustments, increasing transport and energy costs bring some go-forward uncertainties, the financial performance in FY2022 will be better than FY2021.
“Nevertheless, Pos Malaysia will continue to drive the transformation, strengthen the core and deliver on the purpose of being passionate about building trust to connect lives and businesses for a better tomorrow,” it added.
On Wednesday (May 25), Pos Malaysia shares closed half a sen or 0.79% lower at 62.5 sen with some 92,400 shares changing hands.
Based on the closing price, the group is valued at RM485.41 million.