Tropical Battery Company Limited (TROPICAL) for the year ended September 30, 2023, reported a 7% increase in revenue totalling $2.80 billion compared to $2.63 billion in the corresponding period last year. Revenue for the fourth quarter marginally increased to close at $668.88 million compared to $666.45 million for the comparable quarter of 2022.

Cost of sales amounted to $1.93 billion (2022: $1.85 billion), this represents an increase of 4% year over year. Consequently, gross profit increased by 13% to $876.23 million compared to $776.05 million for the year ended September 30, 2022. The company booked gross profit of $209.28 million for the fourth quarter versus $180.47 million reported for the similar quarter of 2022.

Administrative, marketing and selling expenses increased by 23% to close at $630.40 million (2022: $511.90 million).

Operating profit decreased by 7% from $264.15 million in 2022 to $245.83 million in the period under review. Other operating income for the year ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $12.64 million, a 1% decrease relative to $12.83 million reported in 2022.

Profit before depreciation, net finance costs and taxation for the year ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $258.47 million, a 7% decrease relative to $276.98 million reported in 2022. Profit before depreciation, net finance costs and taxation for the fourth quarter amounted to $45.92 million (2022: $54.86 million). Depreciation totalled $56.77 million, a 6% increase from the corresponding period last year (2022: $53.71 million).

Net finance costs for the year ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $56.93 million, a 121% decrease relative to $25.80 million reported in 2022. Net finance costs for the fourth quarter amounted to $26.73 million (2022: net finance income of $5.51 million).

Taxation for the year ended September 30, 2023, surged to $4.93 million from the $462,155 charged in 2022. This is largely attributed to a 24% reduction in remission of income tax year over year.

Net profit attributable to shareholders for the year amounted to $135.20 million, a 31% decrease from the $197.01 million reported in 2022. For the fourth quarter, net profit attributable to shareholders was $2.44 million (2022: $52.77 million).

Earnings per share (EPS) for the year amounted to $0.104 (2022: $0.151), while EPS for the quarter totalled $0.005 (2022: $0.041). The number of shares used in these calculations was 1,303,750,000.

Notably, TROPICAL’s stock price closed the trading period on February 27, 2024, at a price of $2.46 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 23.72x.

Balance Sheet Highlights:

The company’s assets totalled $2.45 billion (2022: $2.04 billion); a 20% increase year on year largely attributed to a 21% improvement in inventories, which totalled $958.31 million (2022: $795.13 million).

Shareholder’s equity was $1.05 billion (2022: $1.01 billion), representing a book value per share of $0.81 (2022: $0.77).

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