KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): Pharmaceuticals company Hovid Bhd slipped into the red in its third financial quarter ended March 31,2017 (3QFY17) with a net loss of RM4.14 million or 0.5 sen a share, from a net profit of RM1.48 million or 0.18 sen a share a year ago, due to revocation of the group’s manufacturing licences earlier this year.
 
This marked the first quarterly loss for Hovid this year, and was also its first in six years. The last time Hovid had been loss making was in 4QFY11. Revenue for 3QFY17 was flat at RM40.88 million.
 
The group reported a 59% drop in net profit for the cumulative nine-month period ended March 31, 2017 (9MFY17) to RM4.83 million or 0.59 sen per share, from RM11.68 million or 1.47 sen per share a year ago.
 
Revenue for 9MFY17 came in 2.6% to RM134.35 million, from RM137.89 million a year ago.
 
On Jan 9, Hovid had to cease all manufacturing activities at its Perak facilities, after the health ministry revoked its manufacturing licences over a compliance issue.
 
This followed a recall of its Ternolol 50mg film-coated tablets — which are prescribed for hypertension treatment — due to a labelling mix-up. The batch contained boxes labelled as “Ternolol 50”, but some of the blisters referred to the product as “Ternolol Tab 100mg”.
 
On March 6, the group was allowed to restart operations at its Chemor, Perak plant and subsequently on May 8, its Ipoh operation was allowed to resume.
 
On its prospects, Hovid said outlook for the group is expected to be satisfactory, given it is expanding its tablet and capsule production facility and actively securing new overseas markets, as well as registration of new products.
 
“However, the fluctuation of the ringgit against the US dollar and the resulting unrealised forex exchange gains or loss may cause some fluctuations to our financial results,” the group said.
 
Hovid shares closed unchanged at 34.5 sen today, for a market capitalisation of RM283 million.