Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Beer cheers despite high taxes


The beer subsidiaries of Carson Cumberbatch have performed well despite the present government's campaign against liquor consumption, the interim result of Lion Brewery (LION) and its major stake holder Ceylon Brewery (BREW) show.

LION's post tax profit rose 51 percent to Rs.287 million for the December quarter against Rs.190 million reported for the same quarter of the previous year. As a result of the expiry of the income tax holiday granted to the company, a sharp income tax increase of 18702 percent to 247 million can be seen.

For the nine months ended December 2010, LION's profit increased 62 percent of 700 million against the same period of the previous year. The full year net profit the company had posted in the last financial year was Rs.640 million.

The Earnings per Share of the company in the December quarter is Rs.3.45 against the Rs.2.24 of the corresponding period last year.

Ceylon Brewery, the other beer unit of Carson Cumberbatch  has also posted impressive results as the company's nett profit rocketed by  more than 100 percent to 19 million.

The two companies have several litigations pending including one from the Customs Department and a few others regarding an unfortunate accident that took place near Balapitya, a southern coastal town of Sri Lanka.


source - www.dailymirror.lk

No comments: