KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): Sunzen Biotech Bhd said on Monday that it has started the process to shut down its loss-making animal health division in a bid to cut expenses and strengthen its profit-and-loss statement.

Going forward, the company will focus its resources on the existing businesses in human health and loan financing instead, said Sunzen in a stock exchange filing with Bursa Malaysia.

“The animal health division has been continuously incurring losses for the past financial years, amid the challenging business environment which has strained the overall financial condition of the company, despite concerted efforts of the management team to overcome the challenging business environment for the animal health industry,” it said.

Human health is Sunzen’s largest revenue contributor with RM80.3 million, accounting for 82% of total revenue for the 12-month financial period ended Dec 31, 2023 (12MFY2024), and having generated RM4.63 million of profit before tax.

Loan financing, meanwhile, seems to be the most profitable, contributing RM13.05 million in revenue with a profit before tax of RM11.89 million for 12MFY2024.

The animal health division had revenue totalling RM4.78 million for the same period, while enduring a loss before tax of RM4.76 million.

Sunzen warned that the animal health division is no longer commercially sustainable, and management considered that the cessation of the business operations is in the best interest of shareholders as a whole.

In November last year, the group changed its financial year-end to June 30 from Dec 31. Sunzen’s next set of audited financial statements will cover a period of 18 months from Jan 1, 2023 to end-June this year.

Shares of Sunzen remained unchanged at 33.5 sen before afternoon break on Monday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM241.61 million.