KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 14): Heineken Malaysia Bhd, which reported yesterday its second-quarter net loss, said today while the brewer's business has gradually improved due to the easing of the country's Covid-19 pandemic-driven Movement Control Order, the company is however not out of the woods yet. 

Heineken Malaysia managing director Roland Bala said today that for 2020, business got worse with the pandemic, which affected consumer sentiment.

"We will continue to be cautious because the impact from Covid-19 on the overall national economy and how long this pandemic will last remain unknown.

"So, we need to stay prudent in terms of how to run the business," Bala said during a virtual media and analyst briefing today on the company's financial performance.

Looking back at the second quarter of 2020, Bala said today the group witnessed recovery in terms of sales performance in May and June compared with in April.

Looking ahead, Roland said the company expects current weaker economic conditions and consumer sentiment due to the pandemic to weigh on the brewer's business prospects.

Yesterday, Heineken Malaysia reported a net loss of RM18.19 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020 (2QFY20) compared to a net profit of RM65.7 million a year earlier.

For 1HFY20, cumulative net profit sank to RM38.77 million from RM118.5 million a year earlier, the company said.

Malaysia's MCO, which was initially scheduled between March 18 and 31, 2020, requires non-essential businesses to stop operations, while the public was ordered to stay at home to curb the Covid-19 outbreak.

On March 25, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government decided to extend the MCO until April 14, because updates from the National Security Council and the Health Ministry indicated an increase in Covid-19 cases. 

On April 10, Muhyiddin said the government was extending the MCO until April 28.

On April 23, Muhyiddin said the MCO would be extended for another two weeks until May 12.

On May 4, news reports, quoting Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, indicated that regulations under the phase four of the MCO were null and void with the commencement of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) or phase five of the MCO.

On May 10, Muhyiddin said the CMCO would be extended to June 9.

On June 7,  Muhyiddin said the CMCO scheduled to expire on June 9 will be replaced with the recovery movement control order (RMCO) beginning June 10 until Aug 31.

At Bursa Malaysia today, Heineken Malaysia’s share price closed down four sen or 0.18% at RM22.16 for a market capitalisation of RM6.69 billion. The stock saw 547,400 shares traded.