29th Jun 2016 08:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Aquatic Foods Group PLC on Wednesday reported broadly flat pretax profit amid higher revenue in 2015, but warned that 2016 has been challenging so far.
The Chinese marine foods and seafood processor said its pretax profit in 2015 was CNY181.8 million, having made a CNY181.9 million pretax profit in 2014, after booking a one-off expense of CNY8 million relating to its initial public offering in 2015.
Revenue grew to CNY978.7 million from CNY856.1 million, as increased sales of fish, sea cucumbers, shrimp and shellfish offset sales a decline in cephalopod sales. Cephalopods include squid, octopus and cuttlefish.
The year was challenging, however, Aquatic Foods said, and gross profit margins declined across all product categories to 28% from 32%.
Aquatic Foods will pay a total dividend of 1.4 pence for the year.
The company added that trading in 2016 so far has continued to be challenging, with further gross margin declines in all product categories, and a 7% fall in revenue in the first quarter.
"The directors expect the current challenging market conditions to continue in the near term, and AFG will seek to overcome this by focusing on operational efficiency, developing new sales channels including supermarkets, increasing sales to our existing distribution network, expanding our distribution network and increasing our focus on export markets," Aquatic Foods said in a statement.
Shares in Aquatic Foods were trading up 5.2% at 7.10 pence on Wednesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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