This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 22, 2018

PanPages Bhd (-ve)

SHARES in PanPages Bhd (fundamental: 0.75/3, valuation: 0.3/3) triggered our momentum algorithm yesterday for the first time this year. The stock closed 3.45% or one sen lower at 28 sen, after 31.63 million shares were done, which is about 18 times more than the counter’s 200-day average of 1.76 million shares.

The group provides business-to-business multiplatform media search solutions.

Last month, the group announced that it would sell its digital agency advertising business for RM1 million. It would also sell its entire equity interest in PanPages Vietnam Co Ltd for RM1, together with the account receivables due from PanPages Vietnam, which amounted to RM2.3 million, for another RM1. PanPages, which has been making losses for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 (FY16) and FY17, said the proposed disposals are part of its plan to divest non-profitable advertising business and to refocus on internally developed products.

It said proceeds from the proposed disposals would be redeployed for its Malaysian operations’ working capital requirements. For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17), the group shrank its net loss to RM742,000 from RM3.29 million a year before, thanks to cost cutting schemes and improved usage of existing resources. Revenue grew 5% year-on-year to RM12.02 million from RM11.45 million.

However, for the full FY17, the group’s net loss expanded to RM9.69 million from RM7.69 million a year ago, while revenue fell 11% to RM27.35 million from RM30.86 million.