$AEM SGD (AWX.SG)$ AEM has uncovered a shortfall in its inve...

AEM has uncovered a shortfall in its inventory levels, estimated to be between 5 and 7% lower than $358.6 million previously reported on Nov 9 as part of its business update for the period ended Sept 2023.

The shortfall will hurt its profitability for the year ended Dec 2023, to be reported on or before Feb 29.

According to AEM on Jan 14, the discrepancy was discovered when it was doing its year-end 2023 internal stock-taking exercise.

The initial investigation into this issue attributes the shortfall to human error in transactions with the group's ERP system during the migration of production to the group's Penang facility from Singapore," says AEM.

"These errors were not detected by the existing controls and processes that are in place. As a result of the company’s initial findings, it has embarked on a process to review its inventory and stock monitoring and tracking processes and systems," the company adds.

AEM says the stock-taking was an internal exercise and not part of an external audit.