Earnings for the year fell by 7% y-o-y to US$52.8 million due to the record high coffee prices during the year and higher expenses on the whole. Excluding the fair value gain on redeemable exchangeable notes of US$2.8 million, Food Empire’s normalised net profit after tax declined 11.4% y-o-y to US$50.0 million in FY2024, which stood within Seet’s estimates.
Maybank Securities analyst Jarick Seet has upgraded Food Empire to “buy” as he sees that the company is on a “firm track back to profitability growth” based on its FY2024 reslts. The analyst last downgraded Food Empire to “hold” in August 2024 amid “headwinds” at the time.
Seet’s latest report comes two days after Food Empire reported a new record revenue of US$476.3 million ($642.5 million) for the FY2024 ended Dec 31, 2024. While FY2024 revenue stood 11.9% higher y-o-y, gross profit only rose by 2.1% y-o-y to US$144.4 million as cost of sales rose.
