Thai Beverage posted a 2% dip in full-year earnings to 22.75 billion baht ($1.00 billion) for FY2020 ended September, from 23.27 billion baht a year ago.
This translated to earnings per share (EPS) of 0.91 baht in FY2020, compared to EPS of 0.93 baht in FY2019.
FY2020 total revenue fell 5.2% to 253.48 billion baht, from 267.36 billion baht a year ago.
The lower revenue was mainly due to a general decrease in sales from its beer business, non-alcoholic beverages business and food business. This was slightly mitigated by the slight increase in sales of spirits business for the FY2020.
Sales from its beer business fell 11.3% y-o-y to 106.87 billion baht. Total sales volume of beer including Sabeco’s beer fell 12.7% y-o-y to 2,357.7 million litres. Excluding Sabeco’s beer, sales volume stood at 796.6 million litres, down 0.9% y-o-y. Total sales volume of Chang Soda and Chang Water fell 27.6% y-o-y to 78.2 million litres.
Sales for its non-alcoholic beverages fell 3.1% y-o-y to 16.28 billion baht mainly due to its product mix. Sales for its food business declined 15.4% y-o-y to 13.17 billion baht.
Operating profit for the FY2020 climbed 12% to 27.51 billion baht from 24.56 billion baht a year ago.
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Compared to FY2019, there were no provisions made for past service cost for employee benefit. The group also registered no net gains on foreign exchange for FY2020 compared to the 10.6 million baht the year before.
Finance costs for the year fell 1% y-o-y to 7.05 billion baht.
In FY2020, there were also other non-recurring costs and deferred tax utilisation related to the restructuring of its beer business of 2.66 billion baht.
Share of profit of investment in associates and joint ventures dropped 33% y-o-y to 3.26 billion baht.
As at end September, cash and cash equivalents stood at 15.15 billion baht, higher than the 9.63 billion baht a year ago.
The board has declared a full-year dividend of 0.46 baht per share for FY2020 including an interim dividend of 0.10 baht per share paid earlier.
This represents a payout ratio of 50.55%, lower than the 51.61% in FY2019. In FY2019, Thai Bev declared a full-year dividend of 0.48 baht per share.
The remaining dividend of 0.36 baht will be payable on Feb 25, 2021.
In a regulatory filing on Nov 25, the group says Thailand’s alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage industry contracted in 2020 due to the impact of prevention measures brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The measures led to the closure of the group’s important sales channels such as restaurants and entertainment venues. The country also saw a ban of the sale of alcoholic beverages from April to early May.
The contraction in the beverage industry was made worse by weak consumer purchasing power amid the uncertain economic environment.
However, the group says the domestic beverage industry has begun to recover following the easing of the measures.
Shares in Thai Bev closed 1 cent lower or 1.4% down at 72 cents on Nov 25.
