Riyadh – Mubasher: L’azurde Company for Jewellery on Sunday reported a 43.8% year-on-year profit decline in 2018, pressured by the fourth quarter's outsize profit retreat.

The Saudi-based jewellery maker logged a net profit of SAR 17.7 million ($4.72 million) last year, down from SAR 31.5 million ($8.39 million) in 2017, the company said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

The profit fall was ascribed to lower retail sales in Saudi Arabia due to applying the value-added tax (VAT) and increasing operational expenses on the back of rising advertising and publicity expenses.

The Saudi firm also cited an increase in operational expenses to retail outlet expansion in Egypt and additional expenses of Saudisation.

In Q4-18, L’azurde’s net profits tumbled to SAR 120,000, from SAR 2.6 million in the year-ago period, according to statistics conducted by Mubasher.

L’azurde posted a 637.45% profit hike to SAR 3.7 million in Q3-18, logging SAR 17.58 million in the nine-month period ended September 2018.