Company News — Page 150

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December 13, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Medical Disposables IPO closed | Medical Disposables IPO closed this morning just after 9:00am and shortly after the official opening, IC Insider have been informed. The company placed 63.157 million shares on offer at $1.83 to raise $115 million.

Guardian leaves us | Guardian Holdings will no longer be available to trade on the Jamaica Stock Exchange as the company has applied for the shares to be delisted effective end of December. The stock is still available for trading on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange where the company is mainly listed. The delisting means less listing fees for the JSE come 2014.

Sagicor Group list by year end | Sagicor Life is expected to be delisted from the JSE by year end. IC Insider gathers that the JSE gave approval for Sagicor Group the direct parent company for Sagicor Life and Sagicor Investments to be listed and Sagicor Life to be delisted. Existing shareholders of Sagicor Life will receive shares equal to their existing holdings in the new company.

Related posts | Medical Disposables, OK not great

TCL likely to lose shareholder’s battle

December 13, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) has been in a battle with some local shareholders who want representation on the company’s board of directors. This group of minority shareholders requested that the annual general meeting (AGM), which should have been held on Friday, July 12, 2013, to be put off pending a court hearing as to whether a resolution to nominate them should be put on the agenda for consideration.

The request by the minority shareholders to seek to nominate directors and have their names included as such on the notice calling the annual general meeting is reasonable, but that would have to be done ahead of the notice period, which is usually 21 days ahead of the meeting. Information from the Guardian suggest that the company was formally informed of the request well ahead of the deadline date and the shareholders seem well within their right to prevent the AGM from going ahead. In all probability, the minority shareholders will win their initial battle with the company but it’s left to be seen if they will succeed at the AGM which now seems likely to be held in 2014 instead.

TCL latest advisory | TCL has just advised that, further to its Notice to Shareholders and Employees dated October 22, 2013 in relation to TCL v. Wilnet Holdings Limited & Ors., the injunction, which restricted TCL from holding its 2012 Annual Meeting, was upheld by the Court of Appeal on November 20, 2013. The Case Management Conference for the substantive matter was held on December 2, 2013 and has been put to January 20, 2014 for directions.

Prior to this latest release, Trinidad Cement stated in a June release to the T&T Stock Exchange that “On 14th June, 2013 TCL received a Shareholders’ Proposal from a group of eleven shareholders holding 5.68% of TCL, and includes Wilnet Holdings Limited, Stephen Espinet, MASA Investments Limited, Brimont Limited, Kamal Ali, Alescon Readymix Limited, Bourne Investment Inc., Tatil Life Assurance Limited, Nicholas Development Limited, Helen Bhagwansingh and Issa Nicholas Holdings.”

The matter went to court and was put off for hearing to Friday, 4th October, 2013 in spite of various representations made to the court for a speedier hearing of the matter by both sides.

TCL stated that “Based on facts that have come to light in this matter including the statements and admissions made by Wilfred Espinet in his affidavit filed in Court, and having regard to the circumstances surrounding the involvement of Republic Bank, Ian De Souza and Wilfred Espinet in the orchestration of the Shareholders’ Proposal, TCL has lodged the following:

A complaint to the Central Bank, requesting that De Souza be disqualified from the status of being a fit and proper person to be concerned with the management of a financial institution, under the Financial Institutions Act, 2008; and
A complaint to the SEC against Republic Bank, Ian De Souza and Wilfred Espinet pursuant to Section 92 (b) of the Securities Act, 2012;
A request that the SEC undertake an investigation pursuant to Section 150 of the Securities Act into whether or not Messrs. De Souza and Espinet have contravened the insider trading provisions contained in Sections 100 to 101 of the Securities Act.”

There is no indication that any action have been taken against the persons mentioned above. The TCL board has been opposed to adding directors to the existing ones.

What happened | From information gleaned from the Guardian Newspaper, “According to their fix date claim form, which was obtained by the T&T Guardian, the group is challenging a decision by TCL directors to refuse to attach the group’s proposal and statement to the management proxy circular which accompanied the notice of the annual meeting. The proposal and statement related to the group’s proposed nomination of five directors to TCL’s board that were submitted on June 14. In the lawsuit, the group is seeking a declaration, which would render the board’s June 24 decision unlawful, null, void and of no effect. Before filing the lawsuit, it wrote to the board members on June 20, asking them to reconsider their decision. The group informed the board it was the perogative of the shareholders to decide and vote on the composition of the board. “Our nominees would have to be elected at the annual meeting by the shareholders and they are not automatic of the directors, who may wish to put themselves up for re-election and therefore the suggestion with respect to proportionality of board representation and contest for directorships seems misplaced,” the group said.

Included in the lawsuit, is a 12-page affidavit, sworn by Espinet, in which he detailed the dealings between the two parties which led to the legal action being filed. Espinet said he became concerned over TCL’s financial position after the company failed to declare a dividend between 2008 and 2012. “As a result of my concerns and the fact that I held investment in TCL as a shareholder, I had conversations with a number of people about the state of affairs at TCL,” Espinet said. He said the group joined together this year in an attempt to nominate five experienced persons to the board to replace five current board members whose terms were due to expire at the meeting. Espinet said after the meeting was first announced on May 18, the group submitted its proposal to TCL’s corporate secretary on June 14. He claimed that ten days later, TCL’s chairman Andy Bhajan communicated with the group and informed them of the board’s decision to refuse its proposal”.

Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) is a IC Insider Buy Rated stock

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: Shareholders, TCL, TTSE

Profit up 22% at Jamaica Broilers

December 12, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Profit after tax due to the Jamaica Broiler’s shareholders, which was up 10 percent in the first quarter to August, is up 22 percent in the October quarter.

Profit was flat in the first quarter, before taking out losses due to outside shareholders of a subsidiary, and was 15 percent ahead of the 2012 second quarter period. The improved results flowed from increased revenues of 20 and 21 percent respectively in each quarter. For the half year, profit hit $324 million or 27 cents per share and in the October quarter, the company reported $184 million versus $151 million in 2012 or 15 cents per share in profits. With the Christmas period ahead, they are now into the best period for revenues and profit. IC Insider’s forecast is now at $1.50 earnings per share for the year, down from an earlier forecast, but cost savings are expecting from the acquisitions, particularly the US based one. Earnings should exceed $2 by 2015 fisscal year. The stock still remains Buy Rated.

The group enjoyed improved gross margins in the second quarter to 29 percent versus 23.4 percent in the first quarter and 26 percent for 2013 fiscal year that ended in April.

The group completed the acquisition of Hamilton Smokehouse and England Farms Inc. during the latest quarter, which resulted in increased income as well as increased cost. Administrative cost rose by 33.5 percent in the October quarter to $923 million and 23 percent for the year to October to $1.43 billion; distribution cost jumped in the last quarter by 39 percent to $335.7 million and 33 percent for the two quarters to $615.6 million. Those were not the only costs to rise, finance cost jumped by 20 percent in the last quarter to $88 million and by 35 percent in the year to date to hit $167 million.

Segments | Poultry sales rose 15 percent to $7.2 billion over 2012; Hi Pro sales which includes feeds was down 1 percent for the half year but ethanol fell 39 percent to $445 million; other operation category is up 75 percent while US operations show a 221 percent jump to $2.15 billion, partially reflecting the new acquisition in the quarter. Other income rose from $68 million to $86 million. Segment results came out at $436 million for poultry, up from $350 million in 2012; Hi Pro recorded $310 million down from $501 million in 2012; ethanol recorded $27 million, in 2012 a loss of $7.5 million was recorded; and the US operations recorded an impressive $202 million compared to only $19 million in 2012.

Balance Sheet | Fixed assets increased by $700 million net of depreciation charge over April due mainly to the acquisitions noted above; intangible assets increased by $455 million and goodwill by $133 million all due to the US and the Hamilton Smokehouse acquisitions. Inventories rose $300 million over the position as of April this year; biological assets moved up by $640 million and receivables and prepayments by $560 million. Cash funds are down $1.1 million at the end of October to $1.1 billion; loans however climbed by $400 million to $5.8 billion, this compares with equity of $10.3 billion. Current assets amounted to $9.2 billion and is well ahead of current liabilities of $5.3 billion, which is a slight deterioration from the level of $8.8 billion in April to $4.2 billion in current liabilities.

Jamaica Broilers Group is an IC Insider Buy Rated Stock.

Image courtesy of Amenic181/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With: Jamaica Broilers, JSE Company

Republic growth struggle

December 11, 2013 by IC Insider.com

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Trinidad’s Republic Bank recorded profit attributable to shareholders of TT$1.17 billion for the year ended September 2013, an increase of only $11 million over 2012.

The performance reflects an operation that is highly influenced by the poor state of some of the economies the group operates in. While profit inched up in 2013, it is still below the $1.2 billion generated in 2008 and $1.34 in 2007 but well above $948 earned in 2009. Recovery has been slow as the main income generator, loans have been growing slowly. Things could pick up somewhat as its main market, Trinidad, has returned to positive growth but Barbados should continue to be tight with high fiscal constraints in place.

“Profit declined by $23.3 million or 29.6 percent in Barbados and a loss of $18.2 million was recorded in Grenada, mainly due to higher level of provisions for loans and investments and a general decline in business activities in both islands. In addition, a loss of $75.7 million was recorded on our investment in Eastern Caribbean Financial Holdings Limited. Improved performance in the commodity-exporting economies of Trinidad and Guyana off-set these declines.”

Republic saw losses for non-performing loan drop from $103 million to $57 million in the 2013. Net interest income barely moved ending at $2.18 billion up from $2.14 billion in 2012. Other income performed more robustly, moving from $1.1 billion to $1.26 billion in 2013. Operating expenses climbed 7.5 percent to $1.74 billion, a faster rate than revenues. The tax charge went up by 25 percent or $76 million to $383 million, well ahead of the pretax profit that increased by $46 million.

Based on the results, a final dividend of $3 per share and $1.25 interim dividend was paid for the year.

Investments | During the year, the remaining 34.86 percent minority shareholding in Republic Bank (Barbados) was acquired and a 40 percent shareholding was acquired in HFC Bank (Ghana). “Republic will continue to look at opportunities in the African continent that meet our risk profile as we seek to expand from this initial investment,” the company stated.

Financial Position | The Group’s total asset base stood at $57.6 billion with equity at $8.3 billion. Total liquid assets, which was fuelled by increase in deposits of $5.0 billion or 13.5 percent, stood at $19.8 billion at year end, an increase of $3.3 billion or 20.2 percent from 2012. Loans and advances grew by $1.9 billion or 8.2 percent to reach $25.2 billion following a growth of 6.6 percent in 2012. All territories achieves growth, led by Trinidad and Tobago with an increase of $1.6 billion or 10.2 percent, which accounted for 84.5 percent of the increase compared to the prior three years of flat growth.

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) is at 1.4 percent for Trinidad and Tobago, the best in the Group and below the industry average in Trinidad and Tobago of 4.7 percent. However, Trinidad and Tobago which accounts for 68.9 percent of the Group’s net interest income, increased this category by 3.1 percent in 2013, after declining by 8.7 percent in 2012, primarily because of increase in loans and investments balances.

NPLs in Barbados at 11.7 percent and Grenada at 8.2 percent respectively are high and reflective of the poor economic conditions, leading to a higher overall Group NPLs of 3.7 percent.

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) to gross loans stood at 3.7 percent. The NPL ratio rose by 4 basis points, mainly as a result of increased NPLs in Barbados and Grenada, but down from the 4.6 percent in 2009. Total specific provision as a percent of total NPLs is 37.2 percent, down from the 50 percent in 2012, mainly because of the higher level of collateral held for loans downgraded resulting in lower provisioning requirement.

Outlook | “We expect that economic conditions will be tough going forward. Nonetheless, barring any unforeseen event, we are confident that the current level of profitability will remain robust. The commodity exporting economies of Guyana and Trinidad are expected to drive our performance while tourism dependent economies of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean are expected to face ongoing challenges with little or no growth. We remain cautiously optimistic that these economies will achieve growth in the near term as global economic conditions improve.” management concluded.

The group has much capacity for increased lending with only 60 percent of deposited funds lent out and is at the lowest level since 2003 when only 61 percent was lent and is well down from 72 percent lent out in 2008. Loan growth in the September quarter suggest that lending could increase around $3 billion for the current year. A faster pace than in 2013 and would help grow income at a level to beat the rise in costs. On the basis of the likely growth in loans, IC Insider is forecasting earnings of $9.50 cents per share for the 2013/14 fiscal year.

Republic Bank is an IC Insider Buy Rated stock

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With: Republic Bank, TTSE

Caribbean Energy Finance

December 11, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Companies are said to be lining up to get onto the Junior Market to lock in the tax gains and raise funding for expansion or to pay off debt. Many of the companies have little name recognition outside of their narrow customer and supplier base.

One company that is now being worked on and is said to be near ready to go is Caribbean Energy Finance Corporation that wants to raise around $450 million. The plan, IC Insider understands, will be to fund energy related investments such as equipment, which will be leased by the company.

The company is trying to have the listing before year end and the promoters are currently having road shows with potential investors. The broker is MVL Stockbrokers.

Image courtesy of Graur Codrin/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Company News Tagged With: Caribbean Energy, JSE Company

Cargo Handlers announces acquisition

December 10, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Cargo Handlers Limited advised that a resolution was passed by the Board of Directors at a meeting held on November 28, 2013 to invest in the Bulk Liquid Carrier Petroleum Limited. The company transports petroleum products across the island. CHL advised that this investment is expected to add $150 million in revenue.

Cargo Handlers just reported earnings of $85 million for the year ended September this year and ended up with cash of $131 million.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: Cargo Handlers, JSE Company

NCB ill-fated IPO cost $680m

December 9, 2013 by IC Insider.com

National Commercial Bank‘s profit took a $680 million hit from the costs relating to ill-fated Initial Public Offering (IPO) early in the just concluded fiscal year to September, according to the company’s audited financial statements.

The banking group was attempting to raise added capital in the international market during the turbulent period ahead of the country reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The amount involved was written off against income thus helping to depress profits for the year and that was not the only big hit shareholders got for their investment during the year.

Net profit for the year amounted to $8.55 billion, a decline from $10.05 billion in 2012 which translates to earnings per share of $3.47 versus $4.08. The 2013 profit was also hit with a huge $1.5 billion charge, the result of losses picked up when they exchanged high yielding government bonds for lower yielding ones. Had these costs not been incurred, earnings would have been around $4.10 per share instead of the reported $3.47 amount.

Profit also got a $281 million hit from receivership expenses, an increase over the amount spent in 2012 of $172 million. Technical, consultancy and professional fees reached $1.093 billion and is up from $846 million in 2012. Some of these fees would probably relate to the IPO issue as well. The impact of those exceptional charges helped in the directors cutting the dividend payment.

The group recorded a more than doubling in the item “Other expenses” that rose to $917 million from $449 million in 2012.

Wage related costs rose 17.25 percent in the year to $9.8 billion due primarily to a larger workforce related to the acquisition of AGIC and costs associated with the restructuring exercise carried out during the financial year, the company stated in its report to shareholders. The group’s statutory contribution remained effective flat suggesting that the bulk of the increase probably relates to redundancy payments.

Advantage General suffered a fall in profit for the NCB Group.

Revenues | Net interest income rose to $23.56 billion from $21.78, in spite of the negative impact of the NDX on interest income from the government bonds. Fees and commission income moved up to $8 billion net compared to $7.1 billion in 2012. Premium income grew to $5 billion from $1.69 billion in 2012 due partially to the acquisition of Advantage General Insurance Company in the year. Gains on sale of debt securities fell to $1.15 billion from $2.65 billion in 2012.

Loan & Provision | The group wrote off $3.6 billion during the year while making fresh provisions of $2.3 billion down from $2.7 billion in 2012 and so ended with net provision of $3.2 billion at the end of the year against loans of $143.6 billion. The impact of the above adjustments show up in the aggregate amount of non-performing loans as at September 2013 for the Group on which interest was not being accrued amounted to $6,961,388,000 (2012 $8,271,530,000).

Personal loans of $72 billion account for more than half of loans on the books and was the largest growing segment of the portfolio accounting for $14 billion of the $28 billion increase in the year.

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With: JSE Company, NCB

C2W says it’s not dead

December 9, 2013 by IC Insider.com

A statement from C2W | “In light of the recent release of our financial statements for the nine months ending September, it is necessary to inform our shareholders what the plans for C2W are. The IPO funds raised in 2012 were mostly spent on operating expenses, with a significant percentage on the creation of the company’s valuable assets. To date we own a significant percentage of over 900 copyrights (our assets) that were co-written with some of the World’s most successful songwriters/producers. C2W executed agreements to sub-publish BMG Chrysalis and Warner Chappell within the region. We will collect their royalties derived from the active songs in their catalogues, while retaining a percentage of these revenues.

“As we are first of it’s kind in the region, we are working closely with the region’s performing rights societies (broadcast, live and other associated rights) to import our robust catalogues and decipher what our rightful earnings are. From an administration and reconciliation point of view, this is new and challenging ground for all involved, an action plan is in place and new systems will prove to be successful at collecting our royalties within the region.

“We expect revenue for the company from both the sub-publishing agreements and from our exploitation of our own catalogue to begin by the second quarter of 2014. While C2W has very low cash reserves, the Company does not require as much operating cash as it did in the past, as it now awaits expected earnings on its intangible portfolio of assets and sub-publishing agreements.

“As a way forward, and until revenues are recognized, we are in communication with various interested, and strategic, outside investors. Once we feel we have the right strategic partner, we will then go through the legal procedures in bringing a proposal to our current shareholders for consideration, via an Extraordinary General Meeting.”

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: C2W, JSE Company

Medical Disposables, OK not great

December 9, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Companies are beating a hasty push to get listed ahead of the change in tax regime for junior market companies. The latest to do so is Medical Disposables & Supply Limited that hits the road with the opening of its IPO on December 13.

The Company invites Applications for up to 63,157,895 Shares in the Invitation. All Shares, including the Reserved Shares, are priced at $1.83 per Share. The Invitation will open at 9:00 a.m. on the Opening Date, Friday 13 December 2013 and will close at 4:00 p.m. on the Closing Date, Friday 20 December 2013. There are 18,096,060 Reserved Shares in the Invitation that are initially reserved for Priority Application from Staff and Key Partners 5,464,481 and Mayberry Clients 12,631,579.

Minimum fundraising | The minimum amount which, in the opinion of the Directors, must be received by the Company is $96.5 million. The offer looks interesting as there should be some initial price gains after listing even though not much is known of the company by the wider public.

Profits | The unaudited results for the first 7 months of the Company’s current financial year to October 2013, show an 18 percent increase in revenues over the same period in the prior year, increasing to $508 million. The Profit before tax outturn was $42 million, a 127 percent increase over the same period in 2012. This puts pretax earnings around 35 cents per share with 200 million shares outstanding and a PE of 5.3 times current year’s earnings. Adjusting for tax for the period before going public, the PE ratio is around 7 times but by the following year with all the profit being tax free the PE would drop to around 5 assuming earnings are basically flat that could result in a price appreciation in 2014 around 40-50 percent.

The new shares are likely to create some dilution in per share earnings initially, as the rate of return on equity is likely to be around 37 percent for the year ending March 2014. Paying off loans, which is one of the objectives for the funds being raised, will yield a lower return on the fresh capital.

Profit before tax declined by $11.8 million in financial year 2010. The Directors consider that the Company began to realise the benefits of an expansion that was executed, as well as its new pharmaceutical distribution relationships, in financial years 2011 and 2012 when Profit before tax increased by $23.5 million moving from $7.4 million to $31 million and $19 million to $50 million in 2012.

Revenues | Revenues moved from $289 million in 2010 to $506 million in 2011, a 75 percent increase and to $724 million in financial year 2012 and increase over 2011 of 43 percent. The rate of growth in sales has slowed and profit growth is also likely to slow down. The company needs strong and sustainable growth levels to justify investors picking these shares ahead of others that are better valued currently. From all indications based on the comparative valuation of other listed stocks, investors are likely to have to wait on the market rally to deliver above average growth in the stock price in the medium term.

Finances | High receivables of $186 million, just under 3 months of sales and inventories are spots of bother resulting in high borrowings of $153 million as of March, versus shareholders’ equity of $152 million.

The company | The Company is a distributor of pharmaceutical products and disposable medical supplies. When it began trading, the it specialised in medical and hospital supplies and disposable items, such as surgical masks, gloves, tubes, gauze, and adhesive and other bandages. Over the years it expanded into the distribution of pharmaceuticals and health and personal care items and other consumer goods. The Company is a co-distributor of the GlaxoSmithKline Jamaica, Dr. Reddy’s, and Bunny’s pharmaceutical and healthcare product lines. It also distributes general consumer items inclusive of complementary beauty, personal care and household products. In that regard, the Company is a sub distributor for Cari-Med Limited, Kirk Distributors Limited, Consumer Brands Limited, and Smith Russell and Company Limited, among others.

The Company is centrally located in a commercial complex in the mid-town industrial area of Kingston. It currently services over 1,100 customers across the island, including pharmacies, hospitals, medical practitioners, health centres, radiology units, nursing homes, medical laboratories, clinics, health food stores, bakeries, hotels, commercial institutions, schools, spas, sports teams and walk-in customers.

Directors | The Company was founded by the Boothe family 15 years ago in Kingston. Myrtis Boothe, Managing Director, provides the Company with its strategic direction and has than 20 years of sales and distribution experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

The directorship includes, Winston Boothe (Chairman), Myrtis Boothe (Chief Executive Officer), Kurt Boothe (General Manager), Nikeisha Boothe (Marketing), Dr. The Hon. Vincent M. Lawrence O.J., Dr. Dahlia McDaniel and Sandra Glasgow.

Use of proceeds | The proceeds of the offer is slated for expansion of the company’s existing product ranges, expansion into new product ranges and underserved niche markets, retirement of bank debt and directors’ loans and balances and pay for the expenses of the IPO, estimated not to exceed $9 million.

Short term gains are possible, but longer term growth and increased profits will come from the quality of management’s execution of the strategies and the maintenance of good relations with suppliers and customers. The suppliers, whom they represent, is critical as a loss of any major ones could negatively affect profitability in the short to medium term.

Image courtesy of DreamDesigns/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News, Initial Public Offers, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: JSE Company, Medical Disposables

Profit drops on falling sales at Salada

December 5, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Profits did not percolate at Salada as the company reported a loss in its 4th quarter with revenues from all sources falling sharply to $152 million from $183 million and from $716 million to $634 million for the year to September.

The decline comes after the company reported robust sales and profits in the first quarter of its fiscal year to December 2012. Sales were up 27.5 percent in the December 2012 quarter and may have been a major reason why Salada suffered declines in sales thereafter, as the trade seemed to have stocked up on supplies, thus cannibalising sales in subsequent periods.

Profit after tax fell to a loss of $7 million for the quarter versus a profit of $41.8 million in the last quarter of the 2012 fiscal year. For the full year, profit fell from $153.4 million to $108 million in 2013. Early in the 2013 calendar year, the company adjusted prices downwards to try and combat declining volumes.

The reduced performance was evident from early in the year as revenues fell and profits followed. In the March quarter, sales revenues were down by 15.6 percent and 19.6 percent in the June quarter but accelerated further to 24 percent in the September quarter for the main business, excluding sales for its new subsidiary, Mountain Peak, which started sales in the fourth quarter.

Interestingly, 2013 is the first year that revenues have been down since 2010, when revenues fell just over a percent, and the second year since 1997 when revenues fell 13 percent. Gross profit, which fell a sharp 31 percent in 2013 have hardly fallen year over year since 2003 except for a 16 percent decline in 2010 and a marginal decline in 2005. In the past year, gross profit margin fell to 56 percent from a high 86 percent in 2012. The gross profit levels have fluctuated over the years and 70 percent seems to be the range that the company has aimed for in recent years.

Cost rise | Compounding the issue is the start-up of the Roberts business lines, which contributed to the reduced profit. While revenues fell, spend on selling and promotion climbed by a third to $43.7 million and administrative cost edged up 6.4 percent. On the other hand, finance income nearly doubled from $17.28 to $34 million as gains from foreign currency contributed $20 million. Operating profit fell sharply to $91.4 million from $208 million in 2012. Expenses for 2013 includes cost for Mountain Peak without the full benefit of sales from that operation to fully cover cost. The new subsidiary contributed approximately $4 million in sales and contributed $17.5 million of losses to the year’s performance.

The cost of inventories utilised in production amounted to $391 million versus $386 million in 2012.

Finances | The company recently declared a dividend of 40 cents per share payable in December which will amount to $41.6 million payment and is likely to reduce the cash on hand at the end of the year of $196 million. Amount due from customers is down from $150 million in 2012 to $90 million at year end but inventories rose to $251 million from $217 million in 2012. The company has current liabilities of just $75 million compared to current assets of $539 million at the end of September and shareholders’ equity stands at $700 million.

Images courtesy of www.saladafoodsja.com