Abundance International widens fiscal 2018 loss to US$743,000

ABUNDANCE International has sunk deeper into the red with a net loss of US$743,000 for the full year ended Dec 31, 2018, compared with a net loss of US$536,000 the year before.

This was mainly due to exchange loss incurred, an increase in the write-down of inventories and non-cash interest expense on zero coupon bonds. This was offset by lower warehousing expenses and depreciation, and a decrease in sales commission, the Catalist-listed company said late on Tuesday after the market closed.

Loss per share from continuing operations stood at 0.12 US cent, compared with 0.08 US cent the year before. Meanwhile, net asset value for the group was at 3.22 US cents, compared with 3.33 US cents the year prior. No dividend was declared for the year, unchanged from previously.

Shares for the company closed at S$0.013 apiece on Tuesday.

The group's revenue decreased to US$413.6 million, down 21.1 per cent from US$524.5 million the year before. This was due to the cessation of trading in certain types of chemical supplies, the group said. Its chemical trading business, conducted via subsidiary OSC Singapore and its subsidiaries in China and Japan (collectively the OSC Group) remained profitable in fiscal 2018, achieving revenue of US$413.4 million.

The cost of goods sold has also decreased to US$398.0 million, from US$506.4 million the year before. The group also saw other income decreasing 58.2 per cent to US$182,000, from US$435,000. This was due mainly to no exchange gain recorded during the year as the group incurred exchange loss of US$559,000 that was recorded under "other expenses", and a reduction in the gain on disposal of paper inventories to US$33,000 for FY2018, from US$118,000 for FY2017.

Finance costs also increased by 20.7 per cent to US$1.0 million, from US$0.9 million the year prior.

Sam Kok Yin, managing director of Abundance International said: "The OSC Group continues to be profitable. We will work towards increasing our profit margins. Tapping on our strong supply and distribution network, we intend to gradually increase the types of chemicals that we trade in."