Sri Lanka’s Hemas Holdings March net profit down 3.5-pct

June 07, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hemas Holdings which has interests in FMCG, leisure and healthcare has posted a shareholder profit of 744 million rupees in the March 2016 quarter, down 3.



5 percent from a year earlier, interim accounts showed. The group reported basic earnings of 1.30 rupees per share for the quarter against 1.

50 rupees per share reported last year. March quarter group revenues rose 9.4 percent to 9.7 billion rupees and cost of sales rose at a slower 0.4 percent to 5.9 billion rupees. The group grew gross profit of 29.7 percent to 3.7 billion rupees. Other operating income dropped sharply to 140 million rupees, from 354 million rupees from a year earlier while administrative expenses rose 55 percent to 1.8 billion rupees. Finance income rose to 194 million rupees from 88 million rupees in the March 2016 quarter. In the year to March, the group reported earnings of 4.63 rupees per share on total profits of 2.6 billion rupees, up 37.7 percent against previous year. Revaluation of land and buildings has added 940 million rupees to the comprehensive income of the group during the year. CEO of Hemas Holdings, Steven Enderby, said strong performance was underpinned by their Bangladesh operation, as well as strong sales across all major brands in the domestic market and relatively weak commodity prices for key raw material inputs.



“Revenue growth was largely driven by the increase in sales from the buyback arrangement with Government of Sri Lanka and sales growth in key diagnostics agencies,” Enderby said. “We continue to focus on driving growth from our core Consumer and Healthcare businesses.” In the segmental analysis for the year, shareholder profits from fast moving consumer goods rose to 1.4 billion rupees, from 1.0 billion rupees a year earlier.

Group’s healthcare sector earned profits of 1.2 billion rupees in the year from 966 million rupees in the previous year.

During the year, Hemas Hospitals opened its first wellness centre at Orion City, three new laboratories and invested in building capabilities in the Urology specialty. Profits from leisure segment turned to a loss of 25.7 million rupees, from a shareholder profit of 144 million rupees a year earlier. However Serendib Hotels posted a revenue growth of 12.2 percent, driven by the popular Dolphin Hotel which recorded year-round occupancy of 83 percent.





With subdued revenue growth from the aviation segment, the transportation sector registered an operating profit of 500 million rupees, a growth of 10.7 percent over the previous year.

The group and the company was liable for super gain tax of 605 million rupees and 32 million rupees respectively. The public shareholding at the end of financial year was 35.4 percent comprising of 202,833,518 shareholders.