Dairy Farm's H1 profit down 18% due to margin pressures

PAN-ASIAN retailer Dairy Farm International Holdings on Thursday posted an 18 per cent drop in net profit to US$192 million for the first six months of 2015.

Sales (including from associates and joint ventures) added 27 per cent to US$8.01 billion. This was thanks to contributions from its recent investments in Yonghui in China and San Miu in Macau. Both are supermarket operators.

Dairy Farm said while sales have been broadly positive across most businesses, margin pressures across its food businesses and disappointing trading in its Guardian business in Malaysia continued to impact its financial performance.

Adverse exchange rates also affected its results on translation into US dollars.

Dairy Farm has a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange as its primary listing, with secondary listings in Bermuda and Singapore. Jardine Strategic has a majority stake in Dairy Farm.

The counter closed four cents lower at US$8.49 on Thursday.