Research firms remain bullish on Pos Malaysia's outlook

RHB Research remains optimistic on Pos Malaysia's 2021 earnings turnaround prospects, in tandem with the broader reopening of the economy, uplifting its non-postal business segments, as well as the company's focus on improving margins.

"Moving into 2021, the management's focus is on margin improvement. Operationally, this entails continued scaling-up of its courier business, digital transformation of its retail business, and further cost-down initiatives.

"Pos Malaysia will also continue engaging with the government on regulatory reforms to support the courier industry's long-term sustainability," the research house said, as it maintains its "buy" call on the company with an unchanged target price of RM1.45.

Meanwhile, AmInvestment Bank remains cautious on Pos Malaysia's outlook this year as it takes time to recover market share loss and confidence due to the shutdown of its main parcel processing centre in October-November 2020, as well as for its operations to fully normalise/recover from the pandemic.

However, looking beyond 2021, it said the outlook for the parcel delivery segment, of which Pos Malaysia is one of the top three players in Malaysia, is positive, it said in a separate note.

It said the positive outlook was underpinned by the structural and irreversible change in consumer preference towards online shopping and the freeze on new courier licences in Malaysia from September 2020 to September 2022 to ensure rational competition in the segment.