ANSA McAL revenues up but profits down

Restructuring of Barbados operations pulls down ANSA McAL’s profit line.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Thursday, August 16, 2012 – Despite bringing in almost TT$300 million in additional revenue over the first half of this year, the ANSA McAL group still found its profit after tax just over $40 million lower than what was recorded for the same period last year.

This decline, said group chairman, Norman Sabga, in his presentation of the ANSA McAL results for the period January to June 2012, was largely attributed to the rationalisation of operations that had to take place in Barbados as a merger of its companies within the Brydens and Stokes & Bynoe groups.

“The reason for the drop in profitability is that we have made one-time provisions in our Barbados financial business where we made TT$45 million provision in our financial sector and also, because of the economy in Barbados, we decided to merge our two distribution companies and the severance payments of that merger was TT$10 million.

“Both of those costs are non-recurring so this was an adjustment and we will see the benefits flowing into the two quarters henceforth,” reported Sabga.

According to the Nation newspaper, in July Ansa McAL sent home 36 employees and five senior managers from its Barbados operations in July. At the time, Nicholas Mouttet, president and chief executive officer of the Barbados operation said the restructuring was part of a plan to make the company stronger and protect the jobs of the more than 1 000 employees in the group. He said the job cuts in the soon to be merged A & R Tempro, Brydens and Stokes & Bynoe represented less than ten per cent of the near 400 workers employed in the distribution section.

Sabga expressed optimism that the situation there would improve. He also said that the manufacturing sector in T&T was impacted by the shortage of cement and the slowdown of construction activity. said that since acquiring the Heineken brand the benefits are starting to be seen.

The ANSA McAL Group reported profit after tax of $283.7 million for the first two quarters of 2012 compared with $325.5 million for the same period in 2011. The group reported top line revenues of $2.7 billion for the first six months of 2012 compared to $ 2.48 billion for the same period in 2011 which was an increase of nine per cent.

According to the chairman’s statement, the profit before tax was $371 million compared to $426 million for the same period in 2011. The Earnings Per Share (EPS) was $1.40 compared to $1.64 for the same period last year. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)