KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 14): Scomi Energy Services Bhd (KL:SCOMIES), a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company, said it is "in a preliminary discussion with a white knight to formulate a regularisation plan to be submitted before Jan 31, 2025". It did not elaborate.
"In the event of any material development, Scomi Energy will make an announcement accordingly," it said in a bourse filing on Thursday.
Scomi Energy had on July 10 decided not to proceed with a regularisation plan that was announced in January this year, which would have seen the oil and gas and transport solutions industries service provider diversifying into the construction business and the entry of founder and group executive director of Dhaya Maju Infrastructure (Asia) Sdn Bhd (DMIA), Datuk Seri Dr Subramaniam Pillai Sankaran Pillai, as its major shareholder.
Since entering PN17 status in January 2020, the group has been granted multiple extensions to submit its regularisation plan. Its latest deadline is end-January 2025.
On Thursday, Scomi Energy's external auditor Messrs Crowe Malaysia PLT had expressed a disclaimer of opinion on the company's financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2024 (FY2024).
Crowe Malaysia in its independent auditors’ report said it had not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on these financial statements.
While Scomi Energy is in a preliminary discussion with a white knight to formulate a regularisation plan, Crowe Malaysia highlighted that there are material uncertainties as to whether these plans would be approved and be successfully implemented.
"If these are not successfully implemented, the group and the company may be unable to realise their assets and discharge their liabilities in the ordinary course of business.
"Accordingly, the financial statements may require adjustments relating to the recoverability and classification of recorded assets as well as additional amounts of liabilities and classification of liabilities. This indicates that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group and the company’s ability to continue as going concerns," the auditor said.
Scomi Energy said it expects to resolve the disclaimer of opinion issues raised by Crowe Malaysia in the current financial year.
Scomi has been loss-making since 2017. For FY2024, the group narrowed its net loss to RM742,000 compared with RM86.16 million in FY2023. However, it recorded a negative operating cash flow of RM1.07 million. Its accumulated losses rose to RM473.05 million at end-June 2024 from RM472.3 million at end-June 2023.
Shares of Scomi Energy have been suspended since July last year after it failed to submit its regularisation plan on time to Bursa Securities. It last traded at 0.5 sen per share.