TAG and TAE attribute losses to Covid-19 pandemic

PETALING JAYA: TA Global Bhd (TAG) and TA Enterprise Bhd (TAE) were in the red for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020.

The companies, in their Bursa Malaysia announcements, attributed their losses to the uncertain economic environment arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

TAG, in the latest reported quarter, fell into net losses of Rm185.95mil from net profit of Rm121.71mil in the same quarter a year ago with revenues falling by 15.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rm157.32mil.

TAG’S net loss per share was at 3.49 sen from an earnings per share of 2.29 sen in the same quarter a year ago.

“TAG’S loss for the quarter was mainly attributed to the investment holding division due to unrealised fair value losses on investment securities as a result of stock market’s reaction to Covid-19,” it said.

TAG also said that its hotel operation division contributed lower net operating profit, excluding a foreign exchange loss, compared with the previous year’s corresponding quarter due to a decline in occupancy rates for the first three months across all its hotels.

For TAE, the company reported a net loss of Rm148.64mil in the first quarter from a net profit of Rm163.10mil a year ago on the back of revenues falling to Rm207.53mil from Rm219.51mil respectively.

TAE said in its Bursa Malaysia announcement that its performance was dragged by lower profit from the investment holding divisions and hotel operations divisions.

This, it said was despite the higher profit contribution from the broking, credit and lending, property investment and property development divisions.

TAE’S investment holding division had seen a foreign exchange loss on the translation of Canadian and Australian dollar-denominated balances.

The division had also seen fair value losses on investments in securities, resulting from the sharp decline in the worldwide stock markets which were affected by Covid-19, the company pointed out.