COLOMBO: Profits at Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka, which has interests in alcohol, plantations, insurance and telecom rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.78 billion rupees in the December 2015 quarter, interim accounts showed.
The group reported earnings of 5.95 rupees per share. For the nine months to December the group reported earnings of 16.63 rupees per share on total profits of 4.7 billion rupees.
At the core alcohol firm gross revenues rose 39 percent to 18.9 billion rupees in the quarter including tax increases. Net revenues grew 21 percent to 5.6 billion rupees, costs were sharply up by 52 percent to 3.3 billion rupees and gross profits were down 6.2 percent to 2.29 billion rupees.
Cost increases are not comparable across quarters a there value added tax was converted to excise in the last quarter of 2015 which affects input costs. At group level administration costs also rose 982 million rupees to 1.4 billion rupees. Analysts say the group’s insurance firm in particular had been expanding.
The firm made a 1.29 billion rupee fair value charge making comprehensive income fall to 462 million rupees from 2,001 million a year earlier. During the nine months, the group said beverages brought 6.1 billion rupees in profits (6.3 billion last year) before tax, plantations loss 310 million rupees (14 million profits) and telecommunications lost 439 million rupees (225 million rupee loss last year).
Financial services made profits of 224 million (up from 114 million) and diversified showed profits of 911 million (up from 576 million). (Colombo/Feb09/2016 – Corrected – Net profits rose10.7 percentto 1.78 billion rupees in the December 2015 quarter).
