KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): Singapore-listed Parkson Retail Asia Ltd (PRA), a 67.96%-owned subsidiary of Parkson Holdings Bhd, said it needs more time to meet the financial criteria to exit from the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) watch-list.
In a bourse filing with Bursa Malaysia on Friday (Oct 28), Parkson said PRA has submitted an application to the SGX to seek the regulator's approval to extend the cure period by another 12 months.
"There is no assurance that the SGX will approve the application. As such, shareholders are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the shares of the company and to consult their professional advisers if they are in doubt as to the action they should take," said PRA executive chairman Tan Sri William Cheng Heng Jem.
"PRA will update its shareholders on the outcome of the application in due course," he added.
In December 2019, PRA was placed on SGX's watch-list after it had issued a notice in October that year that it had been loss-making for three consecutive years. The company has 36 months from Dec 4, 2019 to meet the requirements under Rule 1314 of the SGX's listing manual for its removal from the watch-list.
Rule 1314 provides that an issuer may apply to the SGX for removal from the watch-list if it records consolidated pre-tax profit for the most recently completed financial year and has an average daily market capitalisation of S$40 million or more over the last six months.
If the company fails to meet the financial exit criteria, the SGX has the power to either delist the company or suspend trading of its shares with a view to delisting the company.
Filings with SGX showed that PRA had returned to the black since the quarter ended Dec 31, 2021, posting a net profit of S$32.03 million compared with a net loss of S$6.15 million a year earlier. It recorded a net profit of S$14.68 million for the full 18-month period ended on Dec 31, 2021. (The company had in June last year announced the change of its financial year end from June 30 to Dec 31.)
PRA saw a 78% decline in net profit to S$13.89 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022, from S$63.09 million a year earlier. Revenue, however, surged 125% to S$64.52 million compared with S$28.73 million in that period.
In the cumulative six months ended June 30, 2022 (1HFY2022), PRA's net profit jumped 47% to S$18.12 million from S$12.35 million due to the improved performance of its Malaysia operation. Revenue increased 64% to S$115.74 million from S$70.66 million.
At end-June 2022, the group’s department store network totalled 39 stores, of which 38 are in Malaysia and one in Vietnam .
The group was in a net current liabilities position of S$60.5 million as at June 30, down 41% from S$102.6 million as at end-December 2021, mainly due to lower lease liabilities and higher cash and bank balances. The negative equity of the group also decreased to S$29.6 million from S$49.3 million in that period due to profit attained by the group.
PRA's cash and short-term bank deposits stood at S$107.54 million at end-June.
PRA shares closed down S$0.002 or 4.44% to S$0.043 on Friday, bringing the company a market capitalisation of S$32.04 million. Parkson shares, meanwhile, ended the day up 0.5 sen or 4% at 13 sen, valuing the group at RM143.61 million.
An earlier version of this report had wrongly described the company as loss-making. The error is regretted.