Continuing strong contributions from overseas operations and higher prices for its products helped Haycarb PLC (Group) to cope with pressure on its local manufacturing operations in the nine months to end December 2008, the Group said.
A shortage of coconut shells for conversion to charcoal, its main raw material in Sri Lanka, resulted in production falling by 12 % in the review period, but the Group comprising manufacturing operations in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia has posted a turnover of Rs 3.4 billion, a growth of 12 % over the corresponding period of the previous year.
Revealing its results, Haycarb said pre-tax profit fell 19 % to Rs 226 million while post-tax profit, including gains from discontinued operations, dipped 20 % to Rs 184 million. However, since the post tax profit of Rs 230 million reported in the corresponding nine months of 2007-08 had included an extraordinary capital gain of Rs 66 million, the Group’s bottom line performance for the period under review reflects an improvement of 12 % after discounting capital gains of the previous year.
Commenting on these results, Haycarb Managing Director Ananda Hettiarachchy said: “Our Sri Lankan operations are facing extremely tough conditions but we are cautiously optimistic that our operations in Indonesia and Thailand will to some extent mitigate the impacts of unrealistic exchange rates, high inflation and raw material shortages in Sri Lanka.” Notable among the positive developments at Haycarb was the Group’s ability to reduce net finance costs by 71 % to Rs 23 million in the nine months reviewed and to contain the growth of administrative expenses to 5 %. |
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