Lower investment income drives profit fall for Packages Limited

Packages Limited’s profits (unconsolidated) for the half year ended June 30, 2018 have dropped down by 33.3% as the company reported profits after tax of Rs 2.080 billion compared to Rs 3.120 billion reported a year ago for the half year ended June 2017.

Local Sales surged by about 18%, having been reported at Rs 12.3 billion, compared to Rs 10.4 billion a year ago. Export sales on the other hand, grew by 53% over the year.

Since cost of sales also surged by about 19%, the company’s gross profits rose by only 15%.

On the expenses front, the highest increase in expenses was reported for distribution and marketing expenses, which increased by 20.5% over the year. Both administrative and other operating expenses fell by 3.27% and 30.3% respectively.

Even though the company’s profit from operations increased by 54.39%, the significant drop of investment income from Rs 3.5 billion last year to Rs 2 billion this year caused the firm’s profit before taxation and after tax profits to fall by 32.14% and 33.31% respectively.

The company declared a basic EPS of Rs 22.36 this year, compared to Rs 34.41 last year. Moreover, the company also declared a diluted EPS of Rs 21.98 this year, about 32.6% less than the Rs 32.63 declared a year ago.