PETALING JAYA: Bermaz Auto Bhd, Malaysia’s sole distributor of Mazda vehicles, expects its performance for the financial year ending April 30,2021, to remain very challenging.
It also said any launch of new or facelifted Mazda models would depend on the market sentiments and economic conditions.
Amid the challenging landscape, Bermaz said appropriate austerity measures were being implemented to mitigate the current conditions such as tightening of operational costs and overheads.
“New marketing strategies via e-platform have been introduced to cater for the “new normal” such as wearing face masks, social distancing and conducting meetings via the internet, ” it said in its filings yesterday.
The group filed its worst-ever quarterly results since its listing in 2013 after the movements restrictions in Malaysia and the Philippines due to Covid-19 resulted in zero car sales in the mid-March to mid-May period.
The group’s net profit plunged by nearly 96% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM2.06mil in the fourth quarter of financial year 2020 ended April 30 (4Q20). A year earlier, Bermaz’s net profit was recorded at RM60.06mil.
The drastic drop in profitability was due to the exceptionally low profit contribution from both the domestic and Philippine operations, and lower share of profit contribution from one of its associated companies, Mazda Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
“Concurrently, the group also incurred expenses relating to the group’s Employees’ Share Scheme amounting to RM0.8mil in the quarter under review as compared to RM1.2mil in the preceding year’s corresponding quarter, ” Bermaz told the stock exchange yesterday.
As a result of the poor bottomline, Bermaz’s earnings per share in the three-month period dropped to 0.21 sen as compared to 5.18 sen a year earlier.
Its revenue also fell by 44.4% y-o-y in 4Q20 to RM299.4mil, following a drop in sales volume from both the domestic and Philippine operations.
“In Malaysia, no vehicle sales were recorded as the Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan Malaysia (RTD) was closed due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed by the government from March 18 until May 12.
“Similarly in the Philippines, vehicle ownership certificates could not be generated and hence, no vehicle sales were registered during the Enhanced Community Quarantine imposed by the government in Metro Manila and other areas, from March 17 until May 15, ” stated Bermaz.
No dividend was declared for the fourth quarter.
For the full financial year of 2020 (FY20), Bermaz’s net profit was down by nearly 62% y-o-y to RM100.51mil, largely due to weaker revenue, which has declined by 30.2% y-o-y to RM1.76bil.
The weaker revenue was largely due to lower sales volume from both the domestic and Philippine operations.
According to Bermaz, the lower sales volume in Malaysia for FY20 was mainly attributed to the delay in delivery of the new facelift CX-5 and all new CX-8 models, caused by resolution of certain pricing issues as well as the closure of businesses due to the MCO.
“Previous financial year recorded significantly higher unit sales mainly due to the three-month “Sales Tax holiday” period and also boosted by the group’s promotional campaign in absorbing the sales tax, ” it added.
