MSM confident of sustainable growth, new CEO to be appointed soon
Published on: Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's largest refined sugar producer, MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd (MSM), is well positioned to achieve sustainable growth in the future, says Director Datuk Zakaria Arshad.The outlook for MSM is very bright and its business as usual as the former Group Chief Executive Officer Datuk Sheikh Awab Sheikh Abod had laid the strategies and built a strong team.Sheikh Awab, 56, who passed away on April 14, 2016, had helmed the biggest sugar producing company in the country since Jan 1, 2014 and was integral to the stellar performance of MSM in the past two years.
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"During his time, we already built a very strong team at MSM."We don't foresee any major problem in continuing our business and we are very confident that MSM can achieve the target set for the 2016 financial year."A candidate for CEO has already been identified and will be announced by Chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad very soon," Zakaria, who is also Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) Chief Executive Officer told a press conference here after the company's annual general meeting.FGV holds a 51 per cent stake in MSM.
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Meanwhile, MSM Deputy Chief Executive Officer Mohamad Amri Sahari said the company was confident of sailing through the current challenging financial year and exceed last year's performance."From our production side and sales, we will try to beat last year figures. Our Dubai-based trading hub has started contributing to MSM's revenue since the first quarter.
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"Profit growth has been achieved by strong sales, hedging mechanism and bulk buying that helped MSM lower the cost of raw sugar," he said.MSM achieved its best performance in the company's 51-year history with an impressive 7.11 per cent increase in profit after tax to RM275 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015 compared with RM257 million chalked up in 2014.Pre-tax profit hit a record RM372 million in 2015 against RM344 million in 2014 on the back of a record revenue of RM2.31 billion versus RM2.28 billion recorded in the previous year.Mohamad Amri also said MSM undertook cost saving initiatives via geographical refocusing of distribution centres and energy saving programmes for fuel and electricity usage."Domestic market share had strengthened from 64 per cent to 65 per cent, and the new MSM Johor refinery, which would be commissioned by late 2017, would ramp up total group annual production capacity up to 2.25 million tonnes," he said.Chief Financial Officer Aznur Kama Azmir, however, added that the capital expenditure for the new Johor refinery in Tanjong Langsat would be nearly half of the US$259 million (US$1 = RM4.05) estimated earlier.She said the new refinery's capacity would boost MSM's production which would be able to meet the entire domestic demand.Following this, the company anticipated MSM's future revenue and earnings to double.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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