KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): Pharmaniaga Bhd’s chief executive officer Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope has resigned with effect from Tuesday (March 14), lasting less than three weeks in the position.

In a filing with the local bourse, the company said Zulkarnain, 55, is vacating the position “to pursue other interests”.

Zulkarnain was appointed as CEO on Feb 22, 2023, after he was promoted from the position of Pharmaniaga’s managing director — a role he held since Sept 1, 2020.

It had been hoped that Zulkarnian would be able to resolve the financial crisis at Pharmaniaga, which for the fourth quarter ended December 2022 reported its largest ever quarterly loss of RM664.39 million, dragged down by a massive RM552 million impairment of unsold Covid-19 vaccines.

In a separate filing on Monday (March 13), Pharmaniaga said the group will continue its business as usual. “In the interim, an executive committee comprising of Ahmad Shahredzuan Mohd Shariff (non-independent non-executive director), Zulkifli Jafar (deputy chief executive officer), Mohamed Iqbal Abdul Rahman (chief operating officer) and Norai’ni Mohamed Ali (chief financial officer) will take over the responsibility and perform the functions of the chief executive officer.”

In relation to the company’s Practice Note 17 (PN17) regularisation plan, it said the executive committee would report to the newly formed PN17 board committee taskforce chaired by independent non-executive director Datuk Lim Thean Shiang.

On Feb 27, Pharmaniaga had become an affected listed issuer under PN17, affected by the massive impairment, and is now required to submit a regularisation plan to the Securities Commission Malaysia within 12 months.

In 4QFY2022 the company reported a loss per share of 49.19 sen, against earnings per share of 6.53 sen in the same quarter last year.

This was despite a 21.22% growth in quarterly revenue to RM862.72 million, from RM711.72 million before. It said the higher revenue was due to “healthy growth” across the group’s concession, non-concession and Indonesian businesses, as a result of strong demand from customers following the resumption of normal business activities after the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Pharmaniaga noted that the increase in revenue was partially offset by lower revenue from the sale of Covid-19 vaccines, as “the country is entering into the endemic phase”.

The group’s balance sheet as at Dec 31, 2022, shows that its short-term borrowings, which would be due within six months, ballooned to RM968.27 million from RM570.05 million a year ago. Its long-term borrowings amounted to RM190.6 million versus RM285.17 million.

Notably, the pharmaceutical firm’s receivables increased to RM351.66 million as at end-2022 from RM297.75 million a year ago. Its cash balance was at RM52.84 million, while its inventory dropped to RM767.26 million from RM1.26 billion a year ago, after the impairment.

The massive quarterly loss spooked investors, as roughly RM222 million of the company’s market capitalisation evaporated after its share price posted a single-day loss of 38.6% to 27 sen on Feb 28.

The stock subsequently sank further and hit near a three-year low of 25 sen on March 2, before recouping some of the losses.

In the first trading session on Tuesday, the stock was traded one sen or 3.28% lower at 29.5 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM387 million.

This post has been edited by premier239: Mar 14 2023, 02:49 PM

strawberri

Tells you bout the quality of their management team

but some1 thre for the sake of fulfilling quota priviledge of coz la

these ppl klu boleh ...tak payah kerja ..duit berkepuk2 masuk....hari goyang telok

baru la bestttt

kek, probably found out something, abandon ship before it stick to his reputation

Smart man

This GLC post, konfirm a lot people bertegur bila dia naik kerusi.
Maybe too much demand for pocket monies and he tak boleh tahan?

Let it rot

Real men stay and make it work. Ini tak ada bola. Owai! Probably all are....

55 yrs old can retire la

No need pening2

Time to bring in those onputeh CEO to do retrench exercise before back to massive profitability

maybe there's shit that may cause him to attend court proceeding for years to come, better cabut first.

Should ask ular to finish all the stock.

Does this break the record for the MAS CEO last time? Can't rmbr.

MOst prob , wanted him to be the "Black Sheep " , and he knew that

Ular can apply there kan...

Pharmaniaga is a monopoly.

so just wait a few more years, can recover back with high revenue lah.

so difficult meh the job until resign?

This post has been edited by mezanny: Mar 14 2023, 03:07 PM

Put a DAP guy there and you will see ikan kering comes alive.

What the company need is a magician, assuming they can find one.

Rise, Lazarus. 😁

Yup.... and make enemies?

Duno it will work, Mas for example.

A 'blood transfusion' of a billion RM and it'll spring back to life. 😛

Now where do we get that billion RM from? 🤭

i got workers behave like this, infact almost 1 third perangai like this, waiting pencen , work also like snail

recently got 1 50+yo general worker accident kena langgar by car, during 15 minutes break to take his phone at home(factory is very close to his home), broken leg shoulder, dislocated hip, waiting for surgery now, when my supervisor called him to check on him, he can say he very happpy now, no need work, everyday sleep, eat sleep eat, wait for surgery only.....TOPKEK

maybe the vax scandal???

Smart guy

ikan kering all sudah makan,.. then berak jadi tahi liao,.. how to come alive ??

You don't know one. DAP guy can do one

Where is your sympathy?

This post has been edited by Epci: Mar 14 2023, 03:43 PM

Better not. Nanti jadi Kambing Hitam. 😁

the pot hole cant be fix

Most probably he realised he entered a shit house.

ikankering come clarify, are u still dried fish or already becum pile of crap?

The buck stops with the ceo. Its either u perform , or u resign. He knows he cant perform thats why he resigned.

machiem 1MDB. Resign and tak mau eat dead cat

Disband and write it off. He got to know some details which are troubling to him.

Can ask jbcoder

Pharmaniaga = Toxic GLC.

see the ledger, got so many holes need to cover, cabut ASAP better, if not MACC come to you later

people go to work untuk cari rezeki...

but these kinda glc show it otherwise

It show how bad thing goes in there.

Or he dont wanna involve in those plan, so quite early once h noticed it.

i didn't sign up for this shit

Masuk Jamban, nampak tahi semua lekat di dinding dan lantai terus U-turn , lebih baik kencing di luar longkang je labih aman

This post has been edited by Clement1001: Mar 14 2023, 03:57 PM

i reply this in toilet.

Sunkist sunset.. Kualiti masam

check first if he is clear of any corruption before letting go

just taken over wor

can't expect miracle result overnight

if i were him, i hang on to my position

wait 2 years sure back from red to black result lah

monopoly, sure can get all the sales.

Why some people resign so easily ,lagi got money

so who is problematic, CEO problem or company problem?

better sell to pfizer

U guys go cocok more vaccine, help local company

Nah.. bad decision is a bad decision. Dont privatise profit and socialise loss.

Agak2 he will put that as experience in his Linkin anot?

Antivaccine dont talk please. Disgusting

Why disgusting. Im not antivaccine, plus dont privatise profit and socialise loss.

At least got 3 weeks job as CEO in his CV.

Water is deep yo

He was the MD before being promoted to the CEO post. He knew the shit.

catch all illegal immigrant and force vaccine then take their money

takut kena jadi scapegoat?

"You been promoted to CEO. Congrats! Now you see that bus there?"

When someone join and leave 3 weeks, the issue is not with that person. Lagi ceo! Reputation at stake


He may have found something that is larger than him to take ownership and blame. Best to leave a sinking ship than to go down especially when you are a new captain and you saw many holes and ship is halfway sinking

wah from md to ceo
sempat sapu ceo salary n compensation tak
richer get rich hnghh

This is ceo level la adoi. There is a reason he is paid big money. If u said it was a manager level then maybe la. But ceo level u are expected to produce results or at the very least set the business direction for the company. The pressure is immense. Most probably every night cannot sleep , every minute thinking about solving issues. I tell u , can really get high blood pressure.

Even lasting 3 weeks is an achievement seriously.

Would've known since before he was promoted right? He's not an external hire

Hahahah.

Memang something fishy is going on liao

👀🍷🍿🤭

Probation over?

he found out they only got him in as a scapegoat then he cabut lol
sometimes you know you are really dumb but suddenly people come give you a high position and high pay but you own self know you tak layak sit at that position then you should know that you're the kambing hitam
I see lots of people lanci and say its all luck™ padahal its premeditated by actual smart people
there is no such thing as free meal in this world, pls wake up

Ingat kerja senang goyang kaki sambil tgk surat khabar. Rupanya lubang pinjaman besar kena cari duit. Cabut dulu.

sometimes just wont know before you in that position
and its quite common for new CEO to leave the position when they found new company is difficult to fix
rather look bad for leaving so soon, then be the one that "ruined" the company

Bbb

The situation must so damn shitty that he doesn't even wanna know more.

Inb4 next sd

be ceo fix falling company too hard want easier job goyang kaki

sarahan dap cina kaya

Fucking lame excuse

Always to pursue other interest.

Just be honest and tell the truth la

Sure another Serbuk Dinamit no one wanna take responsibility… perhaps few billion songlap

If he told the truth and sounded like jbcoder, how?

Shit too hardcore inside there le tuuuu
Cabut dulu before explode.

Smart man leaves if he knows his own limit or know ship gonna sink.


3 weeks itu test drive and gooding if paid.

Group MD annual total 2.4m

CEO maybe 1.5m annual

3 weeks = 93k for his service

Easyyyyyy

Kambing hitam

That sounds like a big NOPE

That would be political appointment.
I thought PH is against this practice?

Aiseh, new CEO also chao. Must be very bad inside

Perhaps he realized too many skeletons in the closet and don't want to be Arul Kanda 2.0 later kena haul up to court?

most likely offered petty sum to become scapegoat

angry alrdy resign coz laoya deal

Knew it was a water treatment plant

After joined found out to be a shithole

Quit

Wow, many grunt also don't earn that much a year

cabut cepat sebelum nama jadi busuk

kerja bole cari lagi