Allied Tech halts Malaysia operations, warns of falling sales for next 12 months

CATALIST-LISTED precision engineering firm Allied Technologies is closing its operations in Malaysia from March 18 to March 31 to comply with the government's movement control order.

In a bourse filing on Thursday, the company said that its Malacca and Johor Bahru offices will remain contactable, while all business support functions will be run from its main office in Singapore.

Operations will resume on April 1, subject to further directives from the Malaysian government.

Allied Tech said it was unable to assess the impact the operational closures would have on its earnings per share and net asset value per share for the current financial year, but warned investors that the novel coronavirus outbreak could impair its earnings capacity and ability to secure sales for ongoing and new projects in the next 12 months. 

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday night announced a two-week long restriction in movement nationwide from Wednesday to March 31 in a bid to fight the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from supermarkets, public markets, grocery stores and convenience stores, all other businesses would be closed during this period.

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Aside from Allied Tech, by Wednesday night, at least 10 Singapore-listed firms had temporarily shut their operations in Malaysia for the rest of the month to comply with the movement control order. These are mainly miners, property developers and manufacturers.

Allied Tech shares have been suspended from trading since May 3, 2019, when the company disclosed that about S$33 million of funds were taken out of an escrow account managed by JLC Advisors.

In February this year, JLC managing partner Jeffrey Ong was charged with 12 counts in relation to the S$33 million in missing funds.