DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Almarai, the Gulf’s biggest dairy company, reported a marginal rise in fourth-quarter net profit yesterday, in line with analyst forecasts, as higher sales were offset by the non-recurrence of a one-off gain.
Net earnings in the three months to December 31 were SR373.3m ($99.5m), 1.2 percent higher than the SR369m posted in the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse statement.
Eight analysts polled by Reuters had forecast Almarai would have net profit of SR367.8m in the quarter.
Almarai’s performance in the fourth quarter was boosted by a 13.7 percent advance in sales year-on-year, with its dairy and juices, poultry and bakery businesses posting strong growth, the company said.
However, its profit increase was tempered by the fact it had posted a one-off gain of SR47.2m in the fourth quarter of 2012 from a land sale.
Profit for the full-year 2013 was up 4.3 percent on the previous year at 1.5 billion riyals.
On an annual basis, the benefit to earnings of a 13.5 percent increase in sales was offset by “increasing depreciation and funding costs as a result of the investment programme,” the statement added.
Almarai said last month that its board was recommending a one riyal per share cash dividend for 2013, down from the SR1.25 per share paid out for the previous year.
Reuters
