Sri Lanka Tokyo Cement Sept net falls on building slowdown
Sri Lanka’s Tokyo Cement group said September quarter net profit fell 12 per cent to 139 million rupees from a year ago owing to a drop in sales which however are expected to pick up.
The firm said in a stock exchange filing of interim results that sales during the quarter were flat at 4.3 billion rupees although operating profit rose by half to just over a billion rupees.
Earnings per share fell to 5.15 rupees from 5.84 rupees over the period
The company is a joint venture between Nippon Coke & Engineering Company (formerly Mitsui Mining Co.), the largest coal-mining company in Japan, and the local St. Anthony’s Consolidated.
It attributed the drop in sales to "sluggishness" in the construction industry, which has seen a downturn in recent months as the economy slowed down.
Profits were also affected by an increase in depreciation charges following the commissioning of a new mill and biomass power plant at its factory in the eastern port of Trincomalee.
Tokyo Cement said there had been an "appreciable increase" in interest due to financing of the new mill and the biomass power plant costing about five billion rupees.
"At planning stage it was expected to finance part of the cost out of internally generated funds," it said. Published under Cement News
