One-off gain lifts Del Monte Pacific Q1 income

BOOSTED by a one-off gain, food & beverage company Del Monte Pacific earned a net income of US$3.02 million in Q1 FY2019, compared to US$740,000 a year ago.

The one-off gains of US$6.8 million (post-tax) was from the purchase of subsidiary Del Monte Foods Inc's (DMFI) loans at a discount in the secondary market.

Stripping out one-off items, it would have slipped into the red with a loss of US$3.73 million, versus a net profit of US$1.24 million a year ago.

For the three months ended July 31, 2018, turnover was 7.7 per cent lower year-on-year at S$437.23 million mainly due to lower sales in the United States and lower exports of processed pineapple products. Loss per share for the quarter was 0.1 US cent, compared to a loss per share of 0.13 US cent a year ago.

In an update on the planned listing of its wholly-owned subsidiary Del Monte Philippines on the Philippine Stock Exchange, it said that the group plans to sell about 20 per cent of its stake in the unit.

The initial public offering (IPO) was shelved in June due to "volatile market conditions". It will relaunch this as the equity markets improve, it added.

Shares in Del Monte closed at 17.4 Singapore cents on Wednesday, unchanged.