by S BIRRUNTHA / FILE PIX

Pos Malaysia Bhd’s move to undertake a one off impairment amounting to RM181 million caused it to suffer a net loss to RM232.35 million in its fourth financial quarter ended Dec 31, 2020 (4QFY20) as compared to a net profit of RM7.43 million the company made for the same period in 2019.

The impairment includes provision of RM123.3 million for goodwill, RM41.6 million provision for a Mutual Separation Scheme and RM16.2 million in property, plant and equipment impairment.

The postal group’s revenue dropped 12.6% year-on-year in the quarter to RM544.63 million as revenue from mail and international businesses declined. Loss per share amounted to 29.68 sen.

For the full financial year ended Dec 31, 2020 (FY20), Pos Malaysia recorded a net loss of RM308 million on RM2.33 billion in revenue.

Pos benefitted from the revised postage rates for commercial mail implemented in February 2020 and higher parcel volume due to the increase in online shopping throughout the restriction periods in the year.

Pos Malaysia group CEO Syed Md Najib said the challenges and uncertainty brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 tested the group’s resilience and responsiveness toward sustaining its business while ensuring its planned transformation initiatives were carried out to remain relevant in the market.

He added the progress of its transformation journey and improved financial performance seen in the 2Q and 3Q of FY20 have provided the confidence in making improvements to the group’s profitability this year.

“The group is currently executing its business recovery plan and is confident the aviation sector will recover if the Covid-19 pandemic can be brought under control this year.

“We will continue our transformation journey to further improve our position in enhancing customer experience, riding on technology and digitalisation while leveraging on the exponential growth of the e-commerce sector,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Moving forward, the group will continue to rationalise underutilised mail infrastructure in its ongoing efforts to streamline operations and reduce costs.

He noted the postal company is trialing the concept of a fully crowdsourced last-mile delivery model for the courier business, to be replicated in suitable locations across the nation.

“Pos Malaysia will also seek further regulatory changes through the National Postal and Courier Industry Laboratory (NPCIL), which should aid in building a sustainable courier sector.

“Pos Logistics, which serves prominent automotive manufacturers, should benefit from the government’s extension for sales tax exemption on cars until June 2021,” he added.

Pos Aviation will continue to be prudent in managing costs as it navigates through this unprecedented challenging period for the aviation industry.

The culmination of the group’s initiatives, as well as continuous operations’ improvement, is expected to result in improved profitability this financial year.