Sri Lanka's Bogawantalawa tea estate profits surge

Feb 06, 2013 (LBO) - Profits at Sri Lanka's Bogawantalawa Tea Estates Plc, surged to 146 million rupees from a loss of 28 million rupees a year earlier, helped by stronger tea prices, interim accounts show.

 The firm reported earnings of 1.75 rupees per share during the quarter. In the nine months to December it reported earnings of 3.28 rupees per share on profits of 274 million rupees, recovering from a loss of 199 million rupees a year earlier.

 The stock closed at 12.90 rupees, up 30 cents Monday.

The nine months profits included a 37 million rupee 'fair value' gain on tree growth, according to unaudited accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange.

In the nine months tea brought 2.6 billion rupees of revenues (up from 2.4 billion rupees a year earlier) and 335 million rupees of gross profits. Rubber brought just 4.9 million rupees in revenues and 462,000 rupees in losses.

The company is 67 percent owned by listed Metropolitan Resource Holdings Plc.

In the December 2012 quarter revenues rose 39 percent to 1.03 billion rupees, cost of sales rose at a slower 12 percent to 861 million rupees and gross profits increased over five times to 170 million rupees.

source - www.lbo.lk