- The Invisible
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Join date : 2016-11-28
Age : 44
Ceylon Tobacco CTC
ECONOMYNEXT- Ceylon Tobacco Company Plc, the Sri Lankan unit of British American Tobacco, said that its net profits for the June quarter grew 7.5 percent from a year earlier to 4.7 billion rupees amid favourable weather and cost cutting to manage lower sales from an excise duty hike.
Earnings per share for the quarter were 25 rupees. For the 6 months to June, earnings per share were 46.68 rupees. The CTC share closed trading at 1,298.80 rupees on Thursday.
The firm's net revenue for the June quarter fell 6.8 percent to 36.2 billion rupees, while government levies on sales fell 8.6 percent to 27.6 billion rupees, leading to net revenue falling 10.3 percent to 8.6 billion rupees.
CTC, in a earnings statement, said that sales volumes fell due to excise duties on cigarettes being raised in quick succession in August 2018 and March 2019, and low consumer sentiment following the Easter Sunday attack.
Sales volumes of cigarette sticks had fallen 21.5 percent from a year earlier in the June quarter, the firm said.
Raw material costs fell 42 percent to 389 million rupees.
The firm said that with favourable weather, it has sourced more local leaf during the quarter, compared to high importation of tobacco leaf over the past two years due to poor weather.
Sri Lanka had experienced one of the worst droughts of the last 4 decades in 2017 and 2018, which had hit crop growing.
Other operating costs in June fell 31.4 percent to 589 million rupees amidst the firm's continuing efforts to cut costs to maintain profitability.
CTC warned that the growth in low-taxed and illegally smuggled cigarettes are a threat to the firm's sales and profitability.
Sri Lanka’s consumption of smuggled illegal cigarettes is estimated to exceed 500 million sticks annually, the company said.
This situation is expected to escalate as the price gap between the legal and illegal product widens, resulting from constant price hikes targeting the legal product, CTC said. (Colombo/09 Aug/2019)
- The Invisible
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Re: Ceylon Tobacco CTC
ECONOMYNEXT – Ceylon Tobbacco Plc, a unit British American Tobacco that that has a monopoly in cigarette production said volumes fell 38 percent in the June 2020 quarter from a year earlier amid a Coronavirus lockdown and is recovering fast.
The firm said sales taxes paid by the firm to the government fell 9 billion rupees to 18.6 billion rupees to 27.6 billion rupees as sales fell from 36.2 billion rupees in the June 2019 quarter to 24.1 billion rupees in 2020.
Income taxes fell to 1.0 billion rupees, from 2.9 billion rupees.
Sri Lanka locked down the economy tightly in late March and has largely controlled the spread of Coronavirus with aggressive tracing and quarantine, though gaps were seen in testing.
“Post June, the business recovery is reverting to nearly pre COVID-19 levels encouragingly faster than anticipated and the business is cautiously optimistic of the future in anticipation of revival of the economy,” Ceylon Tobacco told shareholders in the interim report.
“CTC continues with Work from Home arrangements for office-based employees utilizing IT capabilities to facilitate seamless remote working conditions, while other critical responsibilities are discharged from respective locations subject to taking all necessary health and safety precautions.’
CTC reported profits of 3.1 billion rupees for the June 2020 quarter, down from 4.68 billion rupees last year.
Earnings were down to 16.56 rupees per share in the June 2020 quarter, from 25.00 rupees a year earlier. (Colombo/June16/2020)