SHAH ALAM: Another Boustead company facing issues. Pharmaniaga Bhd, a listed company in Bursa Malaysia and a subsidiary of Boustead Holdings which in turn majority owned by Lembaga Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (LTAT) – the Armed Forces Provident Fund – reported losses for the 2022 fiscal year. This pushed the company into the under the financially troubled PN17 category.
According to Bursa Malaysia rules, a company which failed to restructure or revive its business could be delisted from the stock exchange. TH Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd, the builder of the MMEA OPV was delisted by Bursa Malaysia, last year
From Business Today:
Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad has announced the inclusion of Pharmaniaga Berhad in the PN17 list after the company triggered the criteria of the Main Market Listing Requirements of Bursa Securities
This comes after the group reported a loss for 2022, which it announced in its Bursa filing on 27 February 2023. Bursa adds that it would like to emphasise that it will continue to monitor the progress of PHARMA in respect of its compliance with the Main Market Listing Requirements.
For the year ended 31 December 2022, the Group registered a lower revenue by 27.1% against the previous year as there was lower demand from the government for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines. The Group posted LBITDA and LBT of RM505.3 million and RM580.8 million respectively in FY2022 decreasing from EBITDA and PBT of RM342.3 million and RM277.1 million respectively in the previous year.
The troubles with Pharmaniaga also resulted in Boustead having a smaller profit for 2022 fiscal year.
And of course, Boustead Heavy Engineering Company (BHIC) which controls BNS, is also losing money.
The trouble with LTAT companies is likely the reason the government has no other option but to continue with the LCS project despite the obvious difficulties.
— Malaysian Defence
Pharmaniaga got the contract to rebottle Covid vaccines, millions of them, during the mass vaccination effort by the then Govt. How is it that only 2 years later their PN17? There was lower demand for the vaccines now, yes, but what happen to all that money made during that period?
They are not good in managing their operation. Poor governance. Lots of casual events and bonuses given to top management.
And the very system we have in place enables companies like these to gain contracts…
Can’t blame the companies as they want gain revenue. When things go ratshit there’s massive outcry; lots of comments by people in the cyber world and a lot of public attention but there is no real will to prevent a reoccurrence and the end user and taxpayer gets buggered; again.
Pharmaniaga used to make a living by being a ‘postman’ while not provided any added value & thus they got screwed when the gov liberalised the market.
To turned their fortune around they make the worse bet possible by taking in the contract to bottles sinovac trying to abuse their relationship with the gov to push utilisation for a ‘politically incorrect’ vaccine.
It’s a company that bound to die sooner or later & their demise is actually an Indication that we are doing the correct things.
zaft – ”their demise is actually an Indication that we are doing the correct things.”
Is the fact that a long list of companies have not done well ”an Indication that we are doing the correct things”? In reality it’s ”an indication” that our system is highly flawed and self defeating. If a company wasn’t in a good financial position to begin with; how pray tell does it going ratshit an indication that ”we are doing the correct things”?
It’s a given that a transition to a develop economy required sacrificed which is why plenty never made the transition.
To increase efficiency, we remove subsidies, trade barriers, liberalised the market & thus foreign companies comes in & companies like Pharmaniaga whose MO is to be a postman while providing little to no added value & thus can’t compete with foreign firms when the market is liberalised & would naturally go belly up.
LTAT are usually not known to be efficient. Its often seen as full of retired general as compared to khazanah & PNB which is full of professional management.
According to the edge the loses is mostly due to half a billion right off of sinovac stock. If the investors in LTAT didn’t want to lose any more money then they should know what they need to do. They need to actively participates just like investors in PNB & KWSP do.
More bad news. Looks like or minstry of defence is a bad news magnet
Actually the loss itself is not a problem because it is a paper loss – impairments due to write-down of inventory (i.e. vaccine) value, has no actual cashflow impact. Technically if 7081 made in total, more profit from selling vaccines than the cost of the impairment, 7081 actually made money from the vaccine business. This impairment will not appear in the next quarters numbers so assuming its other business are profitable, the income statement should normalise. Since 7081’s PN17 trigger is due to insufficient equity rather than the huge loss, 7081 needs only to find new equity (e.g. capital injection by shareholder). But it is unlikely the RM600m/RM700m being bandied around based on the financials. Currently equity is -RM227.4m, injecting RM400m would be sufficient to get it out of PN17 with sufficient buffers. The problem is, 7081 is not a historically very profitable company meaning its business model is not robust. Meaning its 1 bad business decision or 1 bad event away from another bailout. So to save or not to save?
Joe ‘what happen to all that money made during that period?’
The previous years profit are there. It is just that Accounting wise, they are writing off a lot of unsold and expired vaccines. The amount is so big that it brought the Co to PN17 status. But worry not, their day to day jual ubat business is intact. That is still profitable. So comes next accounting year, they will report profit again.
Those non business savvy should stay out of business, unless they are using their own finances.
Half a billion vaccines, the Govt should have absorbed it and given a 4th dose free to everyone. Now its gone to waste and yet another GLC has to be bailed out. While on surface it only suffered paper loss (suddenly I recalled Anwar back in 97 said not to worry about BNM as it only suffered paper loss haha), their day to day jual ubat business is also an issue as nearly all that are simply repackaged meds & production of generics rather than any innovation or their own creation. Meds research is lucrative but expensive, big pharmas spend billions USD$ yearly and if Pharmaniaga/we aren’t prepared to spend that kind of money to compete, whatever we do is just propping up a middleman doing repacks. Like all other unsustainable GLCs might as well not do it then.