This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 23, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd (KTC) has revised earnings for the third financial quarter ended March 31, 2018 (3QFY18) due to “inaccurate consolidation adjustments” in the accounts released on May 28.

KTC reported a wider net loss of RM11.82 million for 3QFY18, which was 72% higher compared with the initial sum of RM6.85 million which was unveiled in May, according to the filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Revenue, however, was unchanged at RM122.06 million for 3QFY18.

On the reconciliation of the 3QFY18 results, KTC said that the variation had stemmed mainly from a revised consolidated tax calculation, which showed that the company had actually incurred a tax expense of RM1.74 million in 3QFY18 instead of a tax credit of RM2.65 million. This resulted in a variance of RM4.39 million.

Also forming part of the reconciliation was the exchange differences in translation of a foreign operation line, which KTC had revised to a net profit of RM18,000 instead of a net loss of RM399,000.

KTC hogged the limelight last month when the former chairman of its audit and risk management committee Wee Hock Kee resigned from the post because the majority of the board of directors had agreed not to impair the trade receivables as management was confident that they were recoverable.

With the adjustments to the quarterly figures, KTC’s net loss for the nine-month period ended March 31, 2018 (9MFY18) amounted to RM11.62 million, which is RM4.96 million more than the initial amount of RM6.66 million.

As a result of the 3Q adjustments, KTC also posted a higher (adjusted) net loss of RM7.98 million for the full financial year ended June 30, 2018 compared with a net loss of RM1.42 million announced on Aug 30.