KUALA LUMPUR (June 11): Seacera Group Bhd has submitted its unaudited quarterly financial report today — in which it posted a net loss of RM102.15 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 (1QFY19) — just in time to avoid suspension of its shares tomorrow.

Recall that Bursa Malaysia had just on June 4, threatened to suspend trading of the tile manufacturer’s shares, if the regulator was not furnished with the report by or before today.

"In view of the above (the submission of the quarterly financial report today), kindly be advised that there will be no suspension of trading in the above company's securities on June 12, 2019," Seacera said in a stock exchange filing.

Meanwhile, Seacera's quarterly report showed its net loss of RM102.15 million for the fifth quarter ended March 31, 2019 (5QFY19) was due to impairments (RM66 million) and the recognition of liability (RM31 million) on a corporate guarantee for an associate company, SPAZ Sdn Bhd, as demanded by SME Bank, which it announced on May 30.

The impairments were on two main issues: plant, machinery and equipment due to permanent shutdown of its tiles factory (RM23 million), and the impairment due from SPAZ (RM43 million).

The group's revenue for 5QFY19 was only RM783,000. This brings its 15-month cumulative revenue ended March 31, 2019 to RM24 million, with loss before taxation coming in at RM154 million.

Due to a change of financial year end from Dec 31, 2018 to June 30, 2019, there were no comparative figures for 5QFY19 and the 15-month ended March 31, 2019, it said.

Moving forward, the group said 2019 will be challenging, given its Practice Note 17 (PN17) status and insufficient cash flow to support its operations and the repayment of banking facilities.

“In addition, there are uncertainties of local and global economies, particularly slowdown in property development and construction industries, lower consumers demand and US-China trade war. Nevertheless, the board will formulate and develop strategies, especially to propose the regularisation plan to uplift PN17 status within the 12 months period, as required under the listing requirements," it said.

Seacera's shares closed unchanged at 21.5 sen today, after 16.50 million shares were traded, giving it a market capitalisation of RM101.98 million.