Pestech (Cambodia) Plc (PEPC), a power infrastructure provider listed on the local bourse, reported a significant decrease in total revenue for the third quarter of 2023. Heng Chivoan
Pestech (Cambodia) Plc (PEPC), a power infrastructure provider listed on the local bourse, reported a significant decrease in total revenue for the third quarter of 2023, attributed to the sluggish advancement of some of its projects in Cambodia.
The company’s November 13 filing with the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) revealed a revenue of 8.609 billion riel ($2.09 million), a 73.7% decline from the 32.756 billion riel ($7.97 million) recorded in the same period of the previous year.
PEPC’s operating loss for Q3 2023 stood at 1.612 billion riel ($392.2 million), a stark contrast to the 2.459 billion riel ($598.2 million) operating profit in the same quarter of the preceding year, indicating a drop of 4.071 billion riel ($990.5 million) or 165.56%.
After-tax losses were even more pronounced, reaching 12.206 billion riel ($2.969 million) compared to a 5.332 billion riel ($1.297 million) loss in Q3 2022, marking an increase of 6.874 billion riel ($1.67 million) or 128.9%.
As of September 30, the company’s total assets amounted to 1.163 trillion riel ($282.9 million), slightly down by 0.23% from 1.199 trillion riel ($291.7 million) at the end of the financial year on June 30, 2023.
Paul Lim Pay Chuan, executive chairman of PEPC, said that the reduced revenue primarily resulted from the completion of the Oddor Meanchey-East Siem Reap transmission line project in March and their slower progress in Laos border and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) projects.
Despite the gloomy outlook, the company stated in its August filing with CSX that management, in collaboration with its parent company Pestech International Berhad (PIB), is developing a turnaround plan and hopes to deliver positive financial results in the next fiscal year.
“As we enter a new fiscal year, PEPC aims to revise its sustainability plan to rebuild trust among its customers and financial institutions. This is to create renewed opportunities for acquiring new projects and to ensure support for the required financing, enabling efficient and effective project execution,” he said.
“In line with this, we reaffirm our group’s commitment to maintaining our role as a proactive contributor to the development of power infrastructure projects in Cambodia,” he added.
The Cambodian unit of PEPC made its debut in the stock market with an initial public offering (IPO) on August 12, 2020. It issued 3.9 million shares, about 5.3% of its 74,945,000 total voting shares. They were priced at $0.76 per share, raising approximately $3 million for the company, as per the CSX.
