KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 17): KESM Industries Bhd posted a net loss of RM1.54 million for the first quarter ended Oct 31, 2022 (1QFY23) compared to a net profit of RM7.52 million a year earlier, on lower interest income, absence of fair value gain on investment securities and higher finance costs.

This is the independent burn-in and test services provider's fourth consecutive quarter of net loss since 2QFY22.

In a bourse filing, the group said quarterly revenue dropped 23.07% to RM52.76 million from RM68.58 million, largely due to reduced volumes for burn-in and testing services, and electronic manufacturing services (EMS).

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, KESM saw its net loss narrow from RM2.5 million in 4QFY22 as revenue fell 5.21% from RM55.66 million.

KESM said it expects the semiconductor industry to see slower growth of 7.4% in 2022 from 26.3% in 2021, due to a softening in the memory market and reduced consumer spending on electronic products such as smartphones and personal computers although there still is firm demand from the automotive and data centre markets.

“Against these challenging macroeconomic developments and a slowing down in the overall semiconductor market, the group is focused on supporting its customers to fulfil outstanding backlog in automotive devices, whilst realigning its cost structure to the sharp decline in the non-automotive business,” it added.

KESM’s share price closed unchanged at RM7 on Thursday, bringing the group a market capitalisation of RM301.1 million.