SPURTREE reports 28% decline in year end net profit attributable to shareholders

February 15, 2024

Spur Tree Spices Jamaica Limited (SPURTREE) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, reported a 42% increase in Revenue totalling $1.46 billion compared to $1.03 billion in the corresponding period last year. Revenue for the fourth quarter had a 10% increase to close at $393.36 million compared to $356.47 million for the comparable quarter of 2022.

Cost of Sales amounted to $1.02 billion (2022: $697.44 million), this represents an increase of 47% year over year. Consequently, gross profit increased by 31% to $434.42 million compared to $331.09 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022. The company booked gross profit of $120.53 million for the fourth quarter versus $100.90 million reported for the similar quarter of 2022.

Other operating income increased by 230% to close at $7.38 million (2022: $2.24 million), while Administrative and other expenses increased by 58% from $195.26 million in 2022 to $307.96 million in the period under review. As a result, operating profit for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $133.84 million, a 6% increase relative to $126.01 million reported in 2022.

Finance Cost for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $46.37 million, a 269% increase relative to $12.56 million reported in 2022. Finance Cost for the fourth quarter amounted to $13.51 million (2022: $8.88 million).

Profit before Tax totalled $87.47 million a 23% decrease from the corresponding period last year. (2022: $113.44 million).

Tax credit for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $464,000, a 79% decrease relative to $2.18 million reported in 2022.  As such, Net Income for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, had a 24% decrease to reach $87.93 million (2022: $115.62 million).

Total comprehensive income attributable to owners of the company for the twelve months amounted to $83.77 million, a 28% decrease from the $116.81 million reported in 2022. For the fourth quarter, Total comprehensive income attributable to owners of the company was $11.56 million (2022: $13.41 million).

Consequently, Earnings Per Share for the twelve months amounted to $0.05 (2022: EPS: $0.07), while Earnings Per Share for the quarter totaled $0.01 (2022: EPS: $0.01). The number of shares used in these calculations was 1,676,959,244.

Notably, SPURTREE’s stock price closed the trading period on February 13, 2024 at a price of $2.32 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 46.44x.

Balance Sheet Highlights

The company’s assets totalled $1.52 billion (2022: $1.49 billion). Notably, ‘Cash & bank balances’ declined 58% to $61.66 million (2022: $148.25 million), while ‘Property, plant & equipment’ increased 8% to $738.16 million (2022: $682.43 million) and ‘Receivables’ grew 18% to $261.93 million (2022: $222.34 million).

Shareholder’s equity was $796.48 million (2022: $713.18 million), representing a book value per share of $0.47 (2022: $0.43).

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2024-02-15T12:24:17-05:00