Profit before Taxation for the March quarter at Wisynco Group jumped $283 million from $813 million for a 34.8 percent increase to $1.1 billion, from the comparative year ago quarter and for the nine months to March, pretax profit climbed $1.2 billion for a 46.4 percent increase to $3.9 billion, up from $2.7 billion in the prior year. After provision for taxes on profit, earnings attributable to stockholders rose 24 percent to $831 million from $673 million earned for the preceding year.
Wisynco ended at $25 on Friday.
The current quarter “includes foreign exchange loss of $35.4 million compared with a $68 million foreign exchange gain for the 2021 quarter,” the directors William and Andrew Mahfood stated in their commentary on the results.
The results equate to earnings per share of 22 cents for the quarter, up from 18 cents in the 2021 quarter and 79 cents, up from 59 cents in 2021 for the nine months. ICInsider.com projects earnings of $1.20 for the year to June or $4.4 billion, with earnings of $1.70 or $6.3 billion in 2023.
The 2022 quarter’s revenues rose 27.8 percent to $9.7 billion, the highest in the company’s history, above the $7.6 billion achieved in the 2021 third quarter. Revenues for the nine months rose at a much slower pace than the current quarter of 20 percent to $28.4 billion, from $23.6 billion in 2021.
“Revenues were driven by strong demand in all product categories and channels. Usually, our Q1 and Q2 Revenue patterns represent our higher earning quarters, however, this Fiscal Q3 trended higher than Fiscal Q1 and Q2, reflecting the anticipated bouncing back of our economy from the Covid measures being relaxed. Additionally, our increased focus on Exports continued driving growth in the channel and we are embarking on additional strategies to continue this trajectory,“ the Mahfoods stated.
The period was not without its challenges. Cost of sales rose 31 percent in the quarter to $6.6 billion resulting in gross profit rising at a much slower pace of 21.6 percent to $3.1 billion from $2.6 billion in the previous year. “Gross Margin at 32.3 percent was 170 basis points lower than the 34 percent for the corresponding quarter in the prior year due mainly to our LNG plant experiencing disruption in energy supply resulting in the company having to spend an additional $81m to purchase electricity,” the directors reported. They went on to state, “additionally, we had production downtime which led to some higher costs of production as well as increased input costs.”
True Juice bottled and distributed by Wisynco.
Selling and Distribution expenses increased 16 percent for the quarter to $1.78 billion from 1.54 billion in 2021 and increased 12.8 percent to $5.2 billion in the nine months from $4.6 billion in 2021. Administrative expenses fell in the latest quarter to $289 million from $339 million in 2021 and slipped slightly to $1.02 billion from $1.03 billion for the nine months. Depreciation fell from $782 million to $718 million for the nine months and taxation jumped 108 percent from $465 million to $957 million and 86 percent from $141 million to $265 million for the quarter.
Gross cash flow brought in $4.3 billion and $3.3 billion after working capital growth and ended at $1.2 billion after investments, addition to fixed assets and paying $1.5 billion in dividends.
But the group remains in robust financial health, with shareholders’ equity of $17 billion and long term borrowings at $1 billion, while short term loans stood at $800 million. Current assets ended at $16 billion, including trade and other receivables of $3.6 billion, and inventories of $3.4 billion, while cash, bank balances, and investments stood at $9.2 billion. Current liabilities ended the period at $5.8 billion and net current assets ended at $10.4 billion.
The stock traded on the Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $25 at a PE of just over 20 times earnings and seems to be heading for the mid $30 region over the next twelve months.