Malayan Cement announces 4Q19 net loss of US$9.1m

Malayan Cement Bhd remained in the red in 4Q19, making a net loss of MYR38.55m (US$9.1m).
The group has changed its financial year end to 30 June 2020 from 31 December 2019 after the emergence of YTL Cement Bhd as its largest shareholder.

The better performance came despite revenue declining to CMY446.87m from CNY548.16m previously, no thanks to lower domestic sales that were partially offset by higher export sales.

For the 12-month period ended 31 December 2019, Malayan Cement's net loss stood at CMY168.14m on revenue of CMY1.92bn. For comparison, the group said its pretax loss narrowed to CMY200.53m from CMY405.39m in the same period the year before, on cost-cutting, lower distribution costs, lower depreciation and savings from manpower rationalisation – partially offset by higher electricity prices.

Full-year revenue was lower than CMY2.12bn in the year before, on lower domestic demand offset by higher export volume and prices, and improved sales by its Singapore subsidiary.