Unilever Caribbean Ltd
Leading off the release of some third quarter results was Unilever Caribbean Ltd (UCL). For the third quarter ending September 2012, this company saw a 4.4 per cent improvement in its turnover, which reached $140.2 million from $134.3 million in the comparative period last year.
By focusing on its higher margin personal care category, UCL saw its cost of sales decline appreciably. Consequently, its gross profit margin improved to 39.9 per cent from 35.8 per cent last year.
During the quarter outlays for selling and distribution, expenses increased by almost $6.5 million to reach $29.7 million; this larger expenditure should help assure future growth in the key final quarter.
On a cumulative basis, sales for the nine-month period grew by 7.0 per cent to $410 million. In a similar vein, pre-tax profits improved by 5.1 per cent while the after-tax result improved by 1.5 per cent to $38.5million. This result translated to earnings per share figure of $1.47, up marginally from $1.44 last year.
In addition to the higher spending on selling and distribution activities, the company paid a slightly higher rate of tax; in 2011, this was 23.2 per cent, while in the current period it was 25.8 per cent.
Flavorite Foods
Powered by its January 2012 acquisition of Romike Ltd and helped by improved export sales, Flavorite Foods Ltd reported healthy increases in both revenue and profit. Revenue rose by 56 per cent to $112.2 million from last year's $71.8 million.
Meanwhile, the gross profit margin fell to 3.8 per cent from last year's 4.8 per cent. In dollar terms, this reflected an improvement from $3.46 million in 2011 to $4.35 million in the current period, or 25.7 per cent.
After deducting the acquisition expenses of Romike Ltd of $622k, pre-tax profit for the nine months to September 2012 came in at $3.73 million; this was 7.7 per cent higher than last year's result.
Helped by a lower incidence of taxation, which came in at 32 per cent or $1.2 million, its after tax profit was $2.53 million. In 2011, the effective tax rate was slightly more than 45 per cent of its $3.46 million pre-tax figure.
Overall, earnings per share increased by a healthy 38 per cent to $0.33 from last year's $0.24. FFL declared an unchanged interim dividend of $0.10, which is payable in December.
Flavorite's results should be placed in the context of a very disappointing half-year report to June 2012. For that period, FFL reported earnings per share of just $0.10, which was $0.07 below the comparative figure for June 2011. In the current quarter to September 2012, the company seems to have made significant strides in both cost reduction and sales expansion.
Angostura Holdings
Angostura Holdings Ltd delivered a 51 per cent improvement in earnings per share, which moved to $0.62 from $0.41 earned for the nine months to September 2011. Sales (net of excise taxes) for the third quarter improved by 8.3 per cent to $175.3 million; this brought the year to date tally up to $474.7 million.
Overall, year to date sales were down by a modest 1.1 per cent. Sales of alcoholic products fell to $404 million from last year's $426 million. In contrast, non-alcoholic beverages rose to $71 million from 2011's $54.2 million.
Despite reduced sales of alcoholic products, this segment saw profits rise from $111.9 million last year to $122.6 million in this reporting period.
Similarly, non-alcoholic beverages delivered a gross profit margin of 38.8 per cent of sales in 2012; this was a significant improvement from the 35.2 per cent margin obtained in 2011.
In dollar terms, the segment profit for non-alcoholic products rose from $19.1 million in 2011 to $27.6 million this year.
During the quarter, AHL increased its expenditure on selling and marketing costs by almost 54 per cent to $35.2 million. This brought the year to date figure up to $87.2 million. Helped by lower administrative expenses, which fell by more than $10 million, AHL recorded an operating profit of $150.2 million; this represented an improvement of $19.2 million or 14.7 per cent over the 2011 result.
The net effect of lower finance costs, higher foreign exchange gains and improved results from Burns Stewart helped the company deliver a pre-tax profit of $158.4 million; this represented a 48.6 per cent improvement over the 2011 figure of $106.6 million.
After allowing for taxes of $30.3 million, the company reported a net profit of $128.1 million. This was a 48 per cent improvement over the $86.6 million earned for the first nine months of 2011.
National Flour Mills
For the first eight months of the year National Flour Mills Ltd benefited from lower grain prices. This fortuitous event allowed it to report much improved income on essentially flat sales for the first three quarters of the current year. With sales of $323 million for the period, gross profit improved by a robust 65.5 per cent to $61.7 million from last year's $37.3 million.
The company delivered a pre-tax profit of $12.7 million, which was a huge improvement from the loss of $11.1 million recorded for the comparative 2011 period. With an effective tax rate of only 7.6 per cent amounting to less than $1 million, the after-tax profit came in at $11.8 million.
(This low tax bite was probably due to the benefits of previously recorded losses.) This translated into earnings per share of $0.10. It should be noted that 70 per cent of this figure or 7 cents per share was delivered in the most recent July to September period.
In her report, the chairman cautioned readers that grain prices are likely to be much higher in the last part of the current year; consequently, the "rosy" profit picture is likely to be dimmed somewhat.
However, continuous emphasis on cost containment should help mitigate this reduction.
One Caribbean Media
During the third quarter, One Caribbean Media Ltd generated a 38 per cent improvement in its earnings per share, which advanced from $0.24 to $0.33. For the nine-month period to September 2012, the improvement was less robust, as it moved from $0.73 last year to $0.79 or by a factor of 8.2 per cent.
Revenue for the nine-month period improved by 4.5 per cent to $349 million from last period's $334 million whilst its gross profit increased by 3.5 per cent to $115.8 million. Its most significant expense movement was the fall in administrative expenses, which declined from last period's $46.4 million to $44.7 million.
This change helped it deliver a pre-tax profit of $71.6 million, up 7.2 per cent from last year's $66.8 million.
OCM"s effective tax rate fell from last year's 27.5 per cent to 26 per cent in the current period. This decline helped it report a net profit attributable to shareholders of $52.7 million, representing an improvement of 8.7 per cent from last year's $48.5 million.
During the third quarter OCM completed the acquisition of four radio stations. These additions to its portfolio of advertising distribution channels should enhance its fourth quarter results.
Guardian Media Ltd
A 5.3 per cent improvement in its top-line revenues during the third quarter helped Guardian Media Ltd narrow the shortfall between its year-to-date sales for 2011 and 2012. For the nine-month period to September 2012, third party turnover declined by $3.9 million to $129 million.
This period also saw a contracting gross profit margin; this fell to 23.1 per cent from last year's 26.3 per cent. In the current period, this registered at $29.8 million, down more than $5 million from last year's $34.9 million.
With finance costs coming in $670k lower, at $2.47 million, the pre-tax income was recorded at $27.3 million. This showed a decline of almost $4.5 million from last year's $31.8 million. In the current period, the effective tax rate at 24.2 per cent was marginally higher than the 24 per cent paid last year.
In the circumstance, GML reported a net profit figure of $20.7 million; this was 14.3 per cent lower than last year's figure of $24.2 million. On that basis, earnings per share came in at $0.52, down by 9 cents from last year's $0.61.
Last year, GML delivered almost 34 per cent of its total profit, amounting to $0.31 per share, in the last three months of the year. Perhaps, it might be able to do a little better on this occasion?