The decision has been made despite there being no shortage of acquisition candidates for Berjaya, which operates Kenny Rogers Roasters, Starbucks and Jollibean chains in Malaysia.
“Being the largest F&B player in the country, we are always approached by parties for M&As,” Francis Lee Kok Chuan, chief executive of Berjaya’s food division, told The Edge Financial Daily in an interview.
“Nowadays, it is not easy to get people. We have to hire a lot of people. People are now looking for an easy job, and they think [working in] the F&B [sector] is tiring,” he said.
The company’s focus is now on reducing debt after seeing its net profits drop 92.7% to RM12.31m for the six months ended October 31, despite revenue more than doubling over the period.