KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 9): Shares of Tien Wah Press Holdings Bhd slumped 8% in early trade today after its net profit plunged 71.5% to RM4.16 million or 3.09 sen a share in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2016 (3QFY16), from RM14.61 million or 12.64 sen a share a year ago, on lower revenue, lower gross profit margin and retrenchment cost of RM5.1 million.

At 9.13am, Tien Wah lost 16 sen to RM1.84 with 443,200 shares traded.

The printing firm blamed the quarter's unfavourable results on retrenchment arising from the reorganisation of the group's production footprint to improve its strategic positioning to service its customers and reduce operating cost over the longer term.

Revenue for the quarter also declined 13.9% to RM82.93 million from RM96.27 million in 3QFY15, as business was affected by sluggish demand in certain cigarette brand related packaging products, change of pricing of some products to a major customer and the impact of a Vietnam subsidiary that was deconsolidated from Dec 31, 2015, as a subsidiary to a jointly controlled entity.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY16), the group's net profit fell 28.4% to RM15.88 million from RM22.2 million in 9MFY15, while revenue dropped 8.8% to RM246.49 million from RM270.31 million.

In a bourse filing, Tien Wah said its directors opined that the outlook for 2016 continues to be challenging in the volatile global environment.