KUALA LUMPUR: KESM Industries Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter ended Jan 31, 2009 plunged 95.6% to RM678,000 from RM15.36 million a year earlier due mainly to lower capacity utilisation across all its business units.

In an announcement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, KESM said revenue fell 16.9% to RM39.31 million from RM47.32 million.
Earnings per share stood at 1.6 sen compared with 35.76 sen previously.

“As a measure to limit the impact of the global crisis, KESM has implemented a cost control programme that will include a reduction of approximately 8% of our 1,700 workforce,” said executive chairman and chief executive Sam Lim.

He said the company planned to implement further cost reduction measures if the crisis persisted.

For the cumulative six months, KESM’s net profit fell 77.4% to RM4.7 million from RM20.79 million a year earlier on the back of a 16.3% drop in revenue to RM84.84 million.

The global semiconductor market is expected to decline by 24.1% to US$194 billion (RM717.8 billion) in 2009 from US$261 billion in 2008, according to industry sources.