ECL reports 58% decrease in year end net profit

October 30, 2020

Express Catering Limited (ECL) for the year ended May 31, 2020 reported a 19% decrease in revenue to US$14 million (2019: US$17.32 million). Revenue for the quarter declined 79% to close at US$1.09 million relative to US$5.21 million reported the previous year.

Cost of sales (COS) decreased by 15% for the period to US$4.33 million (2019: US$5.07 million). However, gross profit decreased year-on-year by 21%, from US$12.25 million in 2019 to US$9.68 million in 2020. Gross profit for the fourth quarter declined significantly from US$3.39 million in 2019 to US$318,500, a 91% decrease year over year.

Total expenses decreased by 17% for the period in review to US$6.84 million, down from US$8.23 million booked for 2019’s year end. The decline was associated with a 42% reduction in administrative expenses to US$4.41 million from US$7.63 million booked in the same period last year. Depreciation and Amortization saw a drastic 329% increase to US$2.38 million compared to US$554,827 for the comparable period in 2019. Promotional expenses also saw a 4% decrease from US$47,794 in 2019 to US$46,034. Total expenses for the fourth quarter dropped 80% to close at US$437,276 (2019: US$2.19 million).

Consequently, operating profit for the period decreased by 30% to US$2.84 million (2019: US$4.02 million). Operating profit for the quarter totalled US$118,776 relative to US$1.21 million booked for the corresponding quarter of 2019.

Finance cost of US$1.29 million (2019: US$342,047) was incurred for the period and foreign exchange gain amounted to US$21,153 (2019: US$50,565).

Pre-tax profit for the year totalled US$1.56 million, a 58% decrease from US$3.73 million recorded for 2019. No tax was incurred for the period under review, as such net profit amounted to $1.56 million (2019: $3.73 million). For the quarter, net loss amounted to US$1.09 million versus a net profit of US$1.18 million booked for the comparable period in 2019.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the year ended totalled US$0.10 cents (2019: US$0.23 cents). Loss per share for the quarter amounted to US$0.07 cents (2019: EPS US$0.07 cents). The number of shares used in the calculation was 1,637,500,000 units. Notably, ECL’s stock price closed the trading period on October 29, 2020 at a price of J$3.72.

Balance Sheet Highlights:

The Company, as at May 31, 2020, recorded total assets of US$32.47 million (2019: US$8.53 million). Notably, Property, plant and equipment’ amounted to US$22.93 million (2019: nil) and ‘Owning by related companies’ was US$3.64 million (2019: US$1.53 million).

Total Stockholders’ equity as at May 31, 2020 closed at US$3.98 million (2019: US$3.21 million); this resulted in a book value of US$0.24 cents (2019: US$0.20 cents).

Disclaimer:

Analyst Certification –The views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the personal views of Mayberry Investments Limited Research Department about those issuer (s) or securities as at the date of this report. Each research analyst (s) also certify that no part of their compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendation (s) or view (s) expressed by that research analyst in this research report.

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