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| Sunday, 6 June 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Hemas records Rs 612 million profits The personal care, health care, transportation and leisure sectors powered our group increase revenue by 23% to 6.4 billion and net profits by 53% to record Rs 612 million, Director and chief Executive of Hemas Holdings Ltd Hussein Esufally said releasing the Annual Report for the year ending March 31, 2004. He said "it is a challenge to match the 2003/04 earning growth but the first quarter looks good." Esufally said that they plan to invest Rs 200 million in hotel Dolphin and Sigiriya hotels over summer 2004. HHL have also invested Rs 70 million for the refurbishment of Serendib Hotel at Bentota. The group has also acquired 47% of AHCL for Rs 100 million. He said that a blueprint for the leisure sector is under development and they are cautiously optimistic on prospects for the leisure sector with the hope that peace will hold. It was an exceptional year for the personal care sector which accounts for 46% of group profits and it gained its market share despite aggressive competition while 20% of the sales were from new products. The product Baby Cheramy is consolidating leadership while Clogard is aiming for leadership too Esufally said. During the year the new soap plant at a cost of RS 100 million was commissioned and the company is confident of exploring new markets and opportunities. The health care sector also had a very good year and consolidated its position as the largest distributor of pharmaceuticals with a market share of 15%. The transport sector benefitted from the increase in aviation links and business travel with Emirates and Malaysia Airlines increasing the frequency of flights to Colombo. The group increased its pre- tax profit by 50% to Rs 834 million while after tax profit increased by 54% to Rs 654 million. Total assets increased by 94% to rs 7.8 billion and shareholders funds by 56% to 2.6 billion. Speaking of the future, he said that investments will be made in the leisure sector while plans are afoot to commission the 100 MW power plant Heladhanavi by November this year. "Until now we focused on organic growth but now we are looking at acquisitions and partnerships to enhance growth, he said. We are also investing around US$ 100 million on an Enterprise resource planning solution. Esufally said that they are looking at a strategic partner to enhance the turnover of the apparel sector which at present contributes one sixth of the group turnover.(SG) |
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