Ceylon Cold Stores March quarter net down 15-pct

May 17, 2017 (LBO) – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Cold Stores group, which has interests in consumer goods and retailing, fell 15 percent to 824 million rupees in the March 2017 quarter from a year earlier, interim accounts showed. The group reported basic earnings of 8.

67 rupees per share for the quarter in interim accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange.

The stock last traded at 915 rupees. Revenues rose 15 percent to 11.



1 billion rupees in the quarter and cost of sales rose at a faster 21 percent to 9.5 billion rupees, while the firm's gross profits dropped 10 percent to 1.

6 billion rupees. Other operating income was down 5 percent to 368 million rupees while all operating expenses rose by 68 million rupees in the quarter.

Change in fair value of investment property rose 443 percent to 92 million rupees. In the segmental analysis, profits from manufacturing sector rose 20 percent to 559 million rupees in the quarter while profits from retail sector fell 7 percent to 258 million rupees.





In the twelve months to March, profits rose 24 percent to 3.5 billion rupees reporting 37.38 rupees per share as basic earnings.



Revenues rose 26 percent to 43 billion rupees and cost of sales rose 28 percent to 36 billion rupees and the firm gross profits rose 19 percent to 7 billion rupees. The Colombo Ice Company (Private) Limited was incorporated in May 2016, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ceylon Cold Stores. CICL entered in to an agreement with the BOI in July 2016, to lease a land extent of 9 acres for a period of 50 years for the establishment of an Ice Cream factory.

A total of 270 million rupees has been infused by CCS as equity in CICL, as at the reporting date.

The Board of Directors has approved a final dividend of 8 rupees per share for 2016/17 to be paid on 01st June 2017 to those shareholders on the register as of 23rd May 2017. The percentage of shares held by the public as at 31 March 2017 was 18.

58 percent (31 December 2016 – 18.58%) and the number of public shareholders as at 31 March 2017 was 1,906 (31 December 2016-1,940).