Petra Foods' Q3 profit falls 29.1% to US$10.5m

PETRA Foods posted a 29.1 per cent fall in net profit to US$10.5 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014, after the market closed on Tuesday.

This bottom line came on the back of revenue that was also 6.5 per cent lower, at US$118.2 million, down from US$126.3 million during the same period a year ago.

The group, which sold its cocoa ingredients division to Barry Callebaut in June last year, chalked up a nine-month net profit of US$36.4 million, which increased almost eight times from US$4.7 million in the previous year. These numbers include the group's continuing and discontinued operations. The nine-month period in the group's previous financial year had included a US$38.98 million net loss from discontinued operations - which referred to the cocoa ingredients division that it had sold.

Net profit from continuing operations for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2014, stood at US$37.6 million, a 14 per cent decline year on year. Revenue for that period slipped 1.5 per cent to U$S372.7 million.

Earnings per share for the group stood at 1.72 US cents for the quarter, down from 2.43 US cents in the third quarter a year ago. For the nine-month period, earnings per share from its continued and discontinued operations worked out to 5.96 US cents, up from 0.77 of a US cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Its stock price closed six Singapore cents lower at S$3.74 on Tuesday, before the release of its earnings.