KUALA LUMPUR: FashionValet Sdn Bhd (FV) in the limelight due to investment losses incurred by Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), saw five consecutive years of losses prior to their investment.
A check of financial account filings of the company between 2012 and 2017 showed that its losses widened to RM10.7 million in 2017 from RM166,793 in 2012, prior to Khazanah and PNB's investment in the company in 2018.
The financial information was obtained from filings with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM).
In the year in which Khazanah and PNB invested in the company, it recorded a net loss of RM20.19 million.
The company's current liabilities in 2012 exceeded current assets by RM401,248 before it improved in 2017 to a net asset position of RM1.24 million.
Interestingly between 2015 and 2017, total assets grew almost 300 per cent to RM14.7 million, while total liabilities grew more than 100 per cent to RM11.7 million.
Khazanah and PNB invested RM27 million and RM20 million, respectively, into FV in 2018.
Business Times has reached out to Khazanah and PNB to clarify the innvestment criterias met which had led to their investment in 2018, given FV's financial track record in 2017.
A Khazanah spokesperson referred Business Times to its previous statement, while PNB is yet to respond.
Previously, Khazanah said that FV was a promising homegrown e-commerce platform when it invested RM27 million for a nine per cent stake in 2018 with more than 400 brands and 15,000 products and expecting revenue growth of about 60 per cent annually.
"Our investment rationale was anchored on the theme of Offline-to-Online e-commerce, as well as a commitment to support Malaysian entrepreneurs and promising early-stage companies," it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in a written reply to a query published on the parliament website last Monday said PNB's investment was to support the rapidly growing Bumiputera digital retail company to become a regional retail platform for Malaysian brands.
MoF said the sale of Khazanah and PNB's interest in FV to NXBT Partners Sdn Bhd represented a responsible exit to a strategic investor who could continue to assist FashionValet in addressing its financing needs holistically and reviving its business in a challenging industry environment.
As of Sept 30, 2024, NXBT Partners Sdn Bhd is FV's biggest shareholder with 51 per cent, or 2.5 million stakes, followed by Datuk Fadzaruddin Shah Anuar (17.7 per cent) and Vivy Sofinas Yusof (17 per cent).
NXBT Partners is wholly-owned by Afzal Abdul Rahim, the chief executive officer of TIME dotcom Bhd and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd senior independent director.
Its last financial filing with SSM showed that FV posted a net loss of RM34.5 million against RM112.8 million revenue for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2022.