October 6, 2010

Sovereign Foods reports lower share earnings in August

Sovereign Foods has announced that its diluted headline earnings per share for the year ended August 2010 decreased to US$0.26 cents from US$0.703 a year earlier, according to reports.

Net operating income declined to ZAR1.7 million (US$247,782) compared with ZAR32.2 million (US$4.69 million) a year ago. Revenue slid to ZAR527.6 million (US$76.89 million) from ZAR544.9 million (US$79.42 million).

During the period under review, the group said it experienced difficult trading conditions as a result of national poultry prices declining by 13.9% compared to the same period last year.

Pricing was placed under severe pressure due to oversupply of poultry in the market, the company said.

Earlier in May, Sovereign Foods announced revenues of ZAR1.056 billion (US$136.09 million) for the year, up from ZAR909 million (US$117.15 million), according to its annual report.