SunMoon Q3 loss widens to S$1.85m

A CHALLENGING and competitive operating environment continues to plague SunMoon Food Company, as it saw a net loss of S$1.85 million for the third quarter, widening its S$1.29 million loss from a year ago. Loss per share for Q3 stood at 0.2591 Singapore cent, versus 0.1788 Singapore cent last year.

The supplier of fruit products and fresh fruits mainly attributed the losses from its contributing operations to negative gross margins. Gross loss for the third quarter ending Dec 31, 2018, was S$456,000, more than 11 times the S$40,000 gross loss a year ago. SunMoon said that this was mainly due to seasonally low pricing of certain key products in China and the weakening of the Chinese yuan.

Administrative expenses also went up 11 per cent to S$834,000 for Q3 from S$752,000 the year before. The other expenses were S$138,000 for Q3, compared to S$52,000 the year before, mainly due to higher net foreign exchange losses from the weakening of the Chinese yuan, according to the company.

That said, the company noted that revenue increased by 88 per cent to S$20.33 million, compared to S$10.80 million in the previous year. The increase was largely thanks to sales to Shanghai YiGuo E-Commence Co, which constituted 70 per cent of the group's revenue.

SunMoon said that it will continue to focus on its "value-added fresh fruit products in China and South-east Asia", and remains optimistic for an "improved operational result".

For the nine months, the company saw net losses from its continuing operations widen to S$4.70 million from S$3.1 million for the year-ago period. Again, this was mainly due to seasonally low pricing of certain key products in China and the weakening of the Chinese yuan.

That came despite an 88 per cent increase in revenue to S$50.51 million - largely a result of sales to Shanghai YiGuo E-Commence Co, which constituted 53 per cent of the revenue.

SunMoon is on the Singapore Exchange's watch list. The counter closed unchanged at S$0.035 on Wednesday, before results were announced.