Feb 12 - SFI's profit before tax from continuing operations increased $3.0 million (or 5.4 per cent) to $59.0 million, boosted by one-offs with a net gain of $5.5 million.
Singapore Operations
• All three business sectors, Food Distribution, Catering, Abattoir and Auctions reported higher turnover for the year.
• Food Distribution sales increased by 6.9 per cent.
• Food Catering sales improved by 11.2 per cent, benefiting from higher consumption and a price increase with the key customer.
• Revenue in the Abattoir and Hog Auction operations rose by 18.8 per cent due to higher pig numbers.
UK Operations
�� UK turnover decreased 6.3 per cent over FY 2007 to $378.0 million due to the significantly weaker Sterling Pound. (Sales grew 8.2 per cent (to $436.2 million) if 2007’s exchange rate was used.)
�� PBT registered a decrease of 7.4 per cent to $27.2 million, affected by the weaker Pound ($4.0 million impact) but mitigated by a net gain of $2.2 million from one-offs.
�� The one-offs included the gain of $4.2 million on sale of a soup factory site and a fair value loss of $1.7 million on a financial instrument bought for hedging purposes.
�� Excluding the one-offs and using FY 2007 exchange rate, UK would have reported PBT of $29.0 million, versus FY 2007’s $29.4 million.
“SFI Group in 2008 remained resilient in these challenging times. We have strengthened our core business platforms, and restructured our overseas operations to exit loss-making and marginal businesses,” said Roger Yeo, CEO of SFI.
