Riyadh – Mubasher: The preliminary financial statements of Almarai Co showed a decline of 11.9% in profits during the second quarter of 2019.

Net profits after zakat and tax stood at SAR 582.5 million in Q2-19, compared to SAR 661.4 million in Q2-18, according to the company’s statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) on Sunday.

Revenues of the Gulf's largest dairy company increased by 2.6%, led by poultry followed by fresh dairy, however, general weakness in Juice market continued in 2019.

The company attributed the decrease in profits to the increase in selling and distribution expenses by SAR 28.2 million due to higher general marketing expenses and trade support offset by better efficiencies in route to market and trade operations.

Moreover, funding costs levelled up by SAR 41.2 million, led by higher interest-bearing debt after repayment of perpetual sukuk last year, higher interest rate due to higher SIBOR and lower capitalisation of funding cost for qualified capital projects.

Almarai’s profits went down 8.7% to SAR 918.6 million during the first half of 2019, from SAR 1.006 billion in the same period the year before.

Meanwhile, sales inched up 2.59% year-on-year to SAR 3.76 billion during the period between April and June.

In H1-19, the company’s sales levelled up 3.1% to SAR 7.07 billion, versus SAR 6.85 billion in the year-ago period.