KUALA LUMPUR: Tien Wah Holdings Bhd racked up more losses in 2017 with a net loss of RM7.09mil in the third quarter compared to a net profit of RM4.16mil a year before as it closed its Malaysian printing business and incurred forex losses and operating costs for new operations.Year to date, the printing services provider reported a loss before tax of RM36.6mil as compared to profit before tax of RM16.9mil in the preceding period.Tien Wah posted higher revenue of 26.1% owing to revenue consolidation of a newly acquired foreign subsidiary, bringing year-to-date revenue to RM323.4mil, 31.2% higher from the previous-year period.This was the second consecutive quarter of losses for the group. Previously, the cessation of Tien Wah's Australian printing operations had brought it into the red for its first quarterly loss in 15 years.Earnings per share for the nine months period was -12.03 sen as compared to 11.81 sen previously.Tien Wah had announced in July that it was closing its Malaysian printing operations. "The current quarter results have been impacted by the cessation of its Malaysian printing operations announced on 20 July 2017, which the Group recorded a total closure cost of RM 13.6mil (including redundancy expense of RM12mil), a forex loss of RM2.4mil as compared to a forex gain of RM0.9mil in the corresponding quarter and cost incurred for the new operations in Dubai of RM1.7mil, which commenced commercial production in October 2017," it said.Excluding these costs and losses, the group would have posted a Q3 profit before tax of RM4.9mil.In its announcement to Bursa Malaysia, Tien Wah said the group expects to complete the restructuring of its production footprint by the year end. "Moving forward, the Group will be better placed to capitalise the growth opportunities in Indonesia and Dubai and to identify growth opportunities in other geographical segments," it added.

Source: The Star November 09, 2017 06:44 UTC