KUALA LUMPUR: Pos Malaysia Bhd's nine-month financial year 2021 (FY21) net loss of RM148.3 million was within expectations, Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research said.
The bank-backed research firm said while the company chalked in wider losses year-on-year (YoY), following the decrease in mail and parcel volume handled, Q3 FY21 losses were narrower.
This was partially due to their cost rationalisation effort as part of the turnaround plan, it said in a note today.
HLIB said during its meeting with Pos Malaysia's new management recently, the latter is targeting to break even at pre-tax profit level by the first half (1H) of FY22 through reduction of cost of production and reduction of indirect cost.
"We reckon this new team could be more' action executing' on their targets, not just eloquent talks on transformation.
"The improved performance quarter-on-quarter mentioned above is a good preliminary execution sign.
"However, we believe it is still too early to be optimistic as Pos Malaysia's operating environment continues to be challenging, being hampered by the fast-shrinking snail mail volume as well as the fierce competition in the last-mile delivery industry.
"We are expecting seasonally weaker Q4 FY21," it said.
HLIB has maintained its 'Hold' call on Pos Malaysia, with an unchanged target price of 76 sen.