Almarai Reports 2.38% Rise in Second-Quarter Profit

Saudi Arabia’s Almarai said its second-quarter net profit rose 2.38 percent to 674.1 million riyals, from a revised quarterly profit of 658.4 million riyals a year ago.

Revenue dropped 4.2 percent to 3.76 billion riyals from the same period a year earlier, the Gulf’s largest dairy company said, as last year’s difficult market conditions continued in the second quarter.

Almarai said that it remained cautious for the rest of the year.

“Lower cost of sales, despite higher alfalfa costs, due to better cost management, lower commodity costs and enhanced production efficiencies,” contributed to the improvement in profit levels, Almarai said in a statement in the Saudi bourse.

Currency devaluation in Egypt, lower exports, and weaker consumer sentiment impacted the company’s quarterly performance, particularly in the dairy and juice segment, it added.

In June, the Saudi market regulator approved the dairy company’s request to increase capital to 10 billion riyals from 8 billion through the issuance of bonus shares.

Source: Arab News