Stock Earnings: Petra Q1 profit jumps 47.3%!

Cocoa supplier Petra Foods Ltd said its net profit for the quarter to March jumped 47.3 pct year-on-year to 8.41 mln usd as sales increased. The company also attributed the increase in net profit to one-off gains from the revaluation of its Philippine manufacturing assets and the closure of its Malaysian joint venture. Petra said that, even excluding these extraordinary gains, first-quarter net profit was still 26.7 pct higher than a year before. Sales rose 3.5 pct to 114.67 mln usd from 110.77 mln usd a year before. "The strength of both the cocoa ingredients and branded consumer divisions' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and profit from operations is due to a continued strong demand for our products and improving gross profit margin due to higher economies of scale and our continual efforts in mitigating costs," Petra chief executive John Chuang said in a statement. For the rest of the year, Petra Foods expects demand for cocoa ingredients and chocolate confectionery products to drive overall growth. "Our core foundation and investments made will enable us to further solidify earnings growth," Chuang said.

Petra Foods Ltd's first quarter to March results:

Sales - 114.67 mln usd vs 110.77 mln

Pretax profit - 10.60 mln usd vs 7.11 mln

Net profit - 8.41 mln usd vs 5.71 mln

EPS - 1.58 cents vs 1.07