AFC Agro faces big blow to revenues, profits

The listed company, AFC Agro Biotech Limited, has suffered a major blow to its total revenue and profit at the end of the fiscal year 2019-2020.

The company's net profit declined by 89% alongside its total revenue that has halved.

According to the company officials, the decline in product sales hit the revenue hard, with the corona virus playing a major role to this end. 

Although the income came down, its financial expenditure went up, thus leading to fall in the company profit. 

Looking at the financial accounts, it is seen that the company revenue and profit have been in the declining trend since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2019-20. 

AFC witnessed a drop in its revenue and profit since earlier than the pandemic hit.

Listed on the stock's pharmaceutical and chemical sector, AFC Agro received a heavy loss in the last quarter (April-June) of FY20 due to coronavirus pandemic. 

The company failed to pay dividends to its shareholders for the first time since being listed on the stock exchange in 2014 as its total revenue fell by 49.56% and net profit by 89.20%.

The company secretary, Sabekun Nahar, told The Business Standard they had made good revenues and profits at the beginning of FY20 which began to fall later. 

As coronavirus hit the country, their income was also hit hard, she added.

At the end of the financial year, the company could not pay dividends due to low profit, and they had no idea what the situation would be like in future if the coronavirus kept raging, according to the company official.

At the end of Fiscal Year 2019-20, the total income of the company stood at Tk55 crore. After paying tax, its profit came about Tk3.65 crore while Earnings Per Share (EPS) was Tk0.32.

However, in the previous Fiscal Year 2018-2019, the total revenue of the company was Tk109.1 crore, of which Tk33.73 crore was profit, and EPS was Tk2.92.

Up to the first six months of FY20, the company's total revenue was Tk36.18 crore, making a Tk9.36 crore profit. 

However, at the same time of the previous fiscal, its total revenue stood at Tk54.45 crore and profit Tk15.80 crore.

In the nine months from July 2019 to March 2020, AFC's total revenue was Tk51.94 crore, making a profit after tax of Tk11.63 crore. 

At this time, the company's EPS was Tk2.20. At the same time of Fiscal Year19, the company earned a total revenue of Tk83.43 crore and made Tk25.68 crore profit. Its Earnings Per Share was Tk4.04 then.

AFC Agro Biotech manufactures antibiotics, proteins, vaccines, enzymes, etc. 

The company products include macrolide protein, acetic acid, l-lysine, monosodium glutamate, methionine and industrial enzyme.