Pos Malaysia on track with transformation plan

PETALING JAYA: Pos Malaysia Bhd remains cautiously optimistic that the group will deliver improved results in 2023.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the company said it continued to make solid progress with its transformation plan, even in a weakening macroeconomic environment.

“The group was able to maximise its yields and efficiently utilise its assets.”

For its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022, the postal and parcel service provider reported a lower net loss of RM98.42mil, compared with a net loss of RM123.21mil in the previous corresponding period.

Revenue stood at RM467.2mil in the fourth quarter against RM528.6mil a year earlier.

Its loss per share for the quarter stood at 12.57 sen from a loss per share of 15.74 sen last year.

For the full financial year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY22), Pos Malaysia posted a net loss of RM167.7mil compared with a net loss of RM335.7mil for the corresponding period in 2021. This was delivered despite its revenue declining 10.5% to RM1.96bil in FY22 from RM2.19bil in FY21.

Pos Malaysia said the decrease of revenue in its postal segment by 19% was primarily contributed by the drop in courier business following the decrease in overall parcel volume, especially from contract customers.

“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.”

Despite the lower revenue, the group said the loss before tax was reduced as a consequence to effective cost management efforts to optimise operating cost, as evidenced in lower transportation and delivery cost recorded during the financial period.

“The mutual separation scheme exercise has also contributed to the lower staff cost.

“Efforts to increase product yield resulted in higher average revenue per item during the period.”

In a separate statement, Pos Malaysia group chief executive officer Charles Brewer said the company continued to make solid progress with the transformation plan that it embarked on in August 2021.

“Even in an increasingly volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment, we were able to maximise yields and efficiently sweat our assets.”

Meanwhile, Pos Malaysia said the ongoing challenges require continued structural changes.

“We will continue to focus on our transformation, adjusting the business model and capacity and tackling our unprofitable segments. Our operations are characterised by high fixed costs, which makes it challenging to quickly adapt capacity to changing volume trends.”