Thursday 16 May 2019

Sri Lanka’s Haycarb March quarter net profit up 61-pct

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lankan coconut shell-based activated carbon manufacturer Haycarb said net profit shot up 61 percent to 440 million rupees in the March 2019 quarter from a year ago.

Sales of the Hayleys group firm went up almost 43 percent to 6.6 billion rupees, interim accounts showed.

Haycarb reported earnings per share of 14.80 rupees in the March 2019 quarter. The share closed at 130.80 rupees, Wednesday, down 1.20 rupees or 0.9 percent.

EPS for the financial year to 31 March 2019 were 32.16 rupees with net profit up 42 percent to 955 million rupees and sales up 35 percent to 20.9 billion rupees.

Haycarb and Hayleys chairman Mohan Pandithage said that Haycarb posted “noteworthy results” through the execution of its strategic plan in a year of significant challenges in the raw material supply chain for the activated carbon business and adverse local business environment for the environmental engineering segment.

Haycarb managing director Rajitha Kariyawasan said the activated carbon business faced shortages and high cost of raw material in Thailand while the effects of shortages and high prices in Sri Lanka and India up to the third quarter of the year impacted operations negatively.

“The availability of raw material in Indonesia continued to be stable during the year under review contributing significantly to the results,” he said in a statement.

The retention of existing suppliers and broad basing the procurement network of the coconut shell charcoal supply chain in key coconut growing countries in the region, remains one of the most important initiatives of the company in the short to the medium term, he said.

Kariyawasan said productivity improvement initiatives launched under the ‘Lean Operational’ platform reduced costs and increased value to customers.

“The initiatives launched to acquire new customer accounts, access new geographies, penetrate into new market segments and enhance its value added product portfolio backed by successful new product development projects showed positive results and contributed significantly to the performance of the activated carbon business,” he said.

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