Sri Lanka Richard Pieris December net lifted by plantations, retail

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Richard Pieris and Company December 2010 quarter group net profit rose 60 percent to 641 million rupees from a year ago driven mainly by its plantations and retail businesses, a stock exchange filing said.

Sales rose 16 percent to 7.3 billion rupees in the quarter while earnings per share were 32 cents compared with 21 cents the year before.

Net profit for the nine months ending December 31, 2010 shot up 439 percent to 1.3 billion rupees from the previous year with sales up 22 percent to almost 20 billion rupees.

Operating profit in the group's plantations sector shot up to 1.3 billion rupees from 316 million owing to sharply higher tea and rubber prices during the period, according to a segmental analysis of the results.

The Richard Pieris group controls three plantations firms, Kegalle Plantations, Namunukula Plantations and Maskeliya Plantations with extents of tea, rubber and coconut.

Operating profit in the group's retail business rose to 617 million from 399 million as consumer spending revived following the end of the island's 30-year ethnic war in 2009.

However, the group's tyre business operating profit fell to 197 million from 244 million rupees and its rubber products business profit fell to 42 million rupees from 125 million rupees despite higher sales.

source - www.lbo.lk