April 01, 2025

Stationery and Office Supplies Limited (SOS)

Audited financials for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024:

Stationery and Office Supplies Limited (SOS) reported a 5% decrease in revenue, totaling $1.84 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, compared to $1.94 billion in the corresponding period last year. Revenue for the fourth quarter increased by 9%, closing at $437.46 million compared to $402.84 million for the comparable quarter of 2023.

Cost of sales amounted to $834.75 million (2023: $953.08 million), representing a 12% year-over-year decrease. Consequently, gross profit increased by 3% to $1.01 billion compared to $982.08 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023. The company booked gross profit of $216.81 million for the fourth quarter versus $152.28 million reported for the similar quarter of 2023.

Administrative and general expenses increased by 18%, closing at $571.37 million (2023: $483.46 million), while selling and promotional costs increased by 16%, from $132.74 million in 2023 to $153.40 million in the period under review. As a result, depreciation and amortisation for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $45.02 million, a 22% increase relative to $36.83 million reported in 2023.

Operating profit for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $227.51 million, a 30% decrease relative to $324.38 million reported in 2023. Operating profit for the fourth quarter amounted to $14.18 million (2023: operating loss of $3.52 million). Finance costs totaled $4.78 million, a 31% decrease from the corresponding period last year (2023: $6.87 million).

Profit before tax for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $246.63 million, a 26% decrease relative to $331.72 million reported in 2023. Profit before tax for the fourth quarter amounted to $19.84 million (2023: loss before tax of $5.61 million).

Gain on foreign exchange for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, increased by 87% to reach $6.64 million (2023: $3.54 million). Gain on disposal of property, plant, and equipment for the twelve months amounted to $5.57 million, a 22% decrease from the $7.11 million reported in 2023.

Income tax expenses decreased by 56% to $23.80 million (2023: $53.79 million). Income tax credit for the quarter totaled $4.56 million relative to the income tax expense of $10.79 million booked in the prior year’s quarter.

Net profit for the period totaled $222.83 million, relative to the $277.94 million reported twelve months prior. For the quarter, net profit amounted to $24.41 million compared to the net loss of $16.40 million reported in 2023.

Consequently, earnings per share for the twelve months amounted to $0.10 (2023: EPS: $0.12), while earnings per share for the quarter totaled $0.01 (2023: LPS: $0.01). The number of shares used in these calculations was 2,251,084,500.

Notably, SOS’s stock price closed the trading period on March 31, 2025, at a price of $1.62 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 16.37x.

Balance Sheet Highlights:

The company’s assets totaled $1.96 billion (2023: $1.73 billion). The increase in total assets was attributable to property, plant, and equipment, which amounted to $923.71 million (2023: $845.16 million).

Shareholders’ equity was $1.55 billion (2023: $1.33 billion), representing a book value per share of $0.69 (2023: $0.59)

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