SINGAPORE (May 25): Neo Group reported $3.3 million in earnings for FY17, down 46% from the previous financial year.
The bottomline was dragged down by a loss before income tax of $5.8 million from the supplies and trading business segment.
Other income also decreased 31.6% to $4.4 million in the absence of a one-off provisional gain from bargain purchase on acquisition of $3.5 million in FY16.
Accordingly, earnings per share for FY17 fell to 2.24 cents from 4.18 cents.
Revenue grew 29.2% to $162 million thanks to higher revenue contribution across all four business segments.
The supplies and trading segment posted 317.7% higher revenue of $31.1 million, with contribution from newly-acquired frozen meat trading subsidiary, U-Market, in January.
The food catering business recorded a 0.8% increase in revenue to $63.1 million, lifted by stronger Chinese New Year sales in 4Q17.
Revenue from the food retail business segment rose 7.5% to $18.8 million with the segment reported a smaller loss of $0.8 million as a result of tighter cost controls, and fine-tuning of the business model.
The food manufacturing business recorded 29.9% higher revenue of $48 million.
The group has declared a final cash dividend of 1 cent for the year.
“Over the last two years, we’ve made strategic decisions to lay solid foundations in place that are necessary to ensure the long-term viability of our businesses and greater control over our cost structure.
While we remain focused on driving the growth of our four business pillars, our key objective for the coming financial year would be to drive the group’s profitability,” says CEO Neo Kah Kiat.
Shares of Neo Group closed flat at 57 cents on Wednesday.
