Healthcare sector continues to offer good prospects — Pharmaniaga
KUALA LUMPUR: Pharmaniaga Bhd (Pharmaniaga) believes that the healthcare sector continues to offer good prospects, both in Malaysia and internationally.
It believed the encouraging prospects was further supported by the government’s initiatives highlighted in the 2017 National Budget for the building and upgrading of new hospitals and clinics across the nation, as well as the resupply of medicines to all government hospitals and health facilities.
“As a leading pharmaceutical player, Pharmaniaga is indeed well-positioned to tap into these opportunities.
“At the same time, the group remains focused on strengthening its international presence, as its Indonesian operations have seen good growth,” Pharmaniaga said.
Meanwhil, Pharmaniaga registered a lower pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16) as compared with 4Q15.
The pharmaceutical company in a filing to Bursa Malaysia said its 4Q16 pre-tax profit dropped by 83 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM4.07 million from RM23.72 million recorded in 4Q15.
Pharmaniaga in its accounts notes explained that the lower pre-tax profit was attributed to lower revenue and higher finance costs.
At the same time, Pharmaniaga said 4Q16 revenue declined by 14.3 per cent y-o-y to RM582.82 million from RM680.15 million generated in 4Q15.
The company noted that the lower revenue generated was due to reduced orders from its concession business, notwithstanding improved contributions from the group’s Indonesian operations and private sector business.
For financial year 2016 (FY16) ended December 2016, Pharmaniga said the group’s revenue remained flat at RM2.19 billion as compared with RM2.19 billion generated in FY15 ended December 2015.
The company added the group recorded a lower profit before tax (PBT) of RM72 million in FY16 as compared with RM113 million in FY15 due to lower orders from the concession business coupled with higher operating costs such as finance, selling and distributions costs.
Specifically, Pharmaniaga pointed out that its logistics and distribution division has posted a loss due to higher operating costs.
Other than that, the company observed that its manufacturing division achieved a lower PBT of RM87 million as compared with last year’s PBT of RM100 million.
Pharmaniaga explained that the lower PBT for its manufacturing division was due to lower offtake for the in-house products under the concession business.