In a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the pharmaceutical group announced that non-executive director Azhar Ahmad, 60, is leaving “to pursue other interests”, and he would no longer be with the group from June 10, 2023.
Azhar is the fourth person to leave this year, right in the middle of deepening financial woes that has sent it to Practice Note 17 (PN17) status.
In January the company announced the resignations of non-independent non-executive chairman Zainal Abidin Rafique and independent non-executive director Najmil Faiz Mohamed Aris.
Just two months later, CEO Zulkarnain Md Eusope also tendered his resignation, just a month after being redesignated to his new role.
Zulkarnain had served as group managing director of Pharmaniaga from 2020.
Apart from the four resignations, the Pharmaniaga board also saw four of its members given new roles.
Group executive director Zulkifli Jafar was redesignated as deputy CEO while independent non-executive director Abdul Razak Ahmad was promoted to senior independent non-executive director.
At the same time, Boustead Holdings Bhd CEO Izaddeen Daud, who also served as Pharmaniaga director, was redesignated as its non-independent non-executive chairman and Mohamed Iqbal Abdul Rahman was made COO.
Pharmaniaga also announced the appointment of Boustead chief reinvention and strategy officer Ahmad Shahredzuan Mohd Shariff as non-independent non-executive director.
The financial woes
Pharmaniaga, a subsidiary of Boustead, is one of Malaysia’s largest listed integrated pharmaceutical groups and has various lucrative contracts with the Malaysian government, including the provision of Covid-19 vaccines.
However, a massive impairment caused by its failure to offload RM552.3 million worth of Covid-19 vaccines sent it into PN17 status on Feb 27.
This led to the group’s largest ever quarterly net loss of RM664.39 million, or a loss per share of 49.19 sen for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022 (Q4 2022) from a net profit of RM85.47 million the year before, despite higher revenue.
For Q4 2022, the group recorded a revenue of RM862.7 million, an increase of 21.2% from RM711.7 million in the same period of the previous year.
As a result of the weak earnings, the group ended the year with a net loss of RM607.32 million for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY2022) compared to a net profit of RM172.15 million in FY2021.
At 10.10am, Pharmaniaga’s share price slipped 1.37% or half a sen to 36 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM465.12 million.
Over the last year, the share price has fallen 50% from 72 sen on May 9, 2022.