No Signboard's full-year profit falls 1.3%

CATALIST-LISTED No Signboard Holdings Limited posted a 1.3 per cent drop in its full-year earnings, despite a 7.3 per cent rise in revenue.

For the full year ended Sept 30, 2017, No Signboard's net profit was S$7.7 million, compared to S$7.8 million the year before.

The food and beverage group's bottom line was hit by a lower profit before income tax from its restaurant business as well as losses incurred by its beer business from October 2016 to May 2017, prior to its acquisition of the beer business in June 2017.

Earnings per share for FY 2017 was 1.67 Singapore cents, down from 1.69 cents in FY 2016.

The group registered S$24.4 million in revenue for FY 2017, up from S$22.7 million in the 2016 fiscal year.

Restaurant sales fell by approximately 6.3 per cent to S$21.3 million in FY 2017. Sales at The Central outlet increased by about 29.5 per cent, while sales at the Esplanade outlet decreased by about 16.6 per cent and the Vivocity outlet dipped 0.5 per cent.

"While the overall customer count decreased by 15.9 per cent, our restaurants continued to attract more tourists whose higher purchasing power helped increase the average customer spend from approximately S$94 per customer in FY 2016 to approximately S$104 per customer in FY 2017," No Signboard said.

It added that although restaurant sales for the first half declined by 17.5 per cent from S$11.8 million in FY 2016, restaurant sales for the second half increased 5.8 per cent from S$10.9 million in FY 2016.

With the acquisition of its beer business in June 2017, the group's four-month beer sales was S$3.1 million in FY 2017.

No Signboard closed one Singapore cent higher, or 4 per cent, to S$0.26 on Thursday.