KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Food Bhd (BFood) reported a 96.21% fall in its net profit for its second quarter ended Oct 31, attributed to a remeasurement gain of RM158.60mil in the same quarter a year ago.
The Berjaya Corp subsidiary posted a net profit of RM6.2mil for the quarter compared with RM163.6mil a year ago.
The group said this was due to a recognition of gain arising from the remeasurement of its earlier 50% equity interest in Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Co Sdn Bhd (BStarbucks) prior to it buying the other 50% in the coffee chain operator in September 2014 for US$88mil (RM374mil).
Excluding this remeasurement gain, it said, pre-tax profit for the previous corresponding quarter was about RM6.7mil compared with RM8.79mil this year, a 31% increase.
Revenue, meanwhile, jumped 79.8% to RM135.42mil from RM75.32mil during the same quarter a year ago.
In the announcement to Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, BFood said the higher revenue and increased pre-tax profit was attributed to “the full effect of consolidating BStarbucks” despite foreign exchange (forex) losses of about RM1mil due to the weaker ringgit.
Year-to-date, net profit was 92.74% lower at RM12.31mil, while revenue was higher by 132.99% at RM267.83mil for the same reasons.
Quarter-on-quarter, the group reported an increased revenue of RM135.42mil from RM132.41mil, a 2.27% jump.
Profit before tax, meanwhile, fell slightly to RM8.79mil from RM8.95mil.
It said the higher revenue was mainly due to additional cafes operating in the current quarter, while the lower profit was due to higher forex losses.
BFood is engaged in the development and operations of the Kenny Rogers Roasters chain in Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia.
It also operates the Starbucks Coffee brand in Malaysia and Brunei, and Jollibean as well as other brands in Singapore.
“After October 2015, the ringgit has strengthened slightly against the US dollar and shows signs of stability.
“The profit margin is not expected to reduce further if the exchange rate is stabilised at the current level.
“The group expects Starbucks Malaysia to maintain its revenue growth momentum and the overall results of the group to be satisfactory for the remaining quarters of the financial year,” it said in the report.
The board of BFood has recommended a single-tier second interim dividend of 1.25 sen per share for the financial year ending April 30, 2016 to be paid on Jan 22 next year.
The total dividend declared for the financial period ended Oct 31 amounted to 2.25 sen per share.
