KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Malls foresees stronger sales performance in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, at 117% compared to pre-pandemic levels on the back of better Hari Raya 2022 sales.

       The mall group operator with seven physical malls and one digital mall saw its sale performance came in above expectations at 143% in April and 110% in May.

       It expects its performance to sustain at 100% for June 2022.

       Sunway Malls said the sales performance at 117% in 2Q22 is expected to surpass Sunway Malls’ 100% in 1Q22.

       Sunway Malls & Theme Parks chief executive officer HC Chan said the high sales performance of Raya in April provided a significant, leading and comfortable start for 2Q22.

       “In fact, April’s 143% sales performance is the highest to date and surpassed even January’s 116% during the CNY period. Even if we compared Raya 2022 to Raya's pre-pandemic level, it achieved 121%. Definitively, this is a very strong performance however you measured it,” he said in a statement.

       “With the 2Q22 forecast, Sunway Malls will see three consecutive quarters of sales performance achieving 100% and more. We had achieved our first quarter of 100% against pre-pandemic level in 4Q21 and repeated the feat in 1Q22.

       “With the latest 2Q22 projection, we are sighting nine months of uninterrupted 100%. Sunway Malls is seeing an accelerated and sustained recovery,” he added.

       Given the strong trajectory, Sunway Malls is expected to return to pre-pandemic level profitability in 2022 itself.

       The mall group is also seeing marked improvement in lowering outstanding arrears that stood at RM100mil in Sept 2021. The mall group forecasts a reduction of 80% by the end-2022.