Food Empire reports earnings of US$50.2 mil for FY2024, down 7% y-o-y

Food Empire Holdings has reported earnings of US$52.5 million ($70.3 million) for the FY2024 ended Dec 31, 2024, down 7% y-o-y. 

For the 2HFY2024, earnings came in 3.2% y-o-y lower at US$28.9 million.

The group’s ebitda for FY2024 came in 6.6% y-o-y lower at $81.1 million, which includes a fair value gain of derivatives of US$2.8 million from the redeemable exchangeable notes. 

In FY2024, the group’s wholly owned subsidiary Empire APAC, issued 5.5% redeemable exchangeable notes to Merit Genesis and Apex Genesis at an aggregate value of US$40 million.

For FY2024, revenue for the group grew 11.9% y-o-y to $476.3 million. 

This was mainly from the strong double-digit growth from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and CIS segments. It was offset by a slight dip in its Russia segment due to the depreciation of the Russian ruble against the US dollar. 

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Vietnam was Food Empire’s fastest growing market in FY2024 contributing more than 50% revenue to the group’s Southeast Asian segment. 

Excluding the fair value gain on redeemable exchangeable notes of US$2.8 million, Food Empire’s normalised net profit after tax declined 11.4% to US$50.0 million in FY2024, reflecting the impact of record high coffee prices during the year, and also higher overall expenses. 

Sales and marketing expenses were up 14.2% due to an increase in consumer engagement activities, particularly in Vietnam, while general and administrative expenses were up 15.6% mainly due to higher legal and professional expenses in relation to the issuance of the redeemable exchangeable notes.

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The group recorded cash and cash equivalents of US$130.9 million as at Dec 31, 2024. 

Food Empire has declared a total dividend for FY2024 of 8 cents per ordinary share. 

The group expects growth in momentum to continue, in particular, stronger growth from Asia due to commercial and strategic initiatives. 

Shares in Food Empire closed 1 cent lower or 1.015% down at 97.5 cents on Feb 25.