Oct 2014 Financial News

Prestige Holdings profit climbs 49%

Oct 22, 2014

Prestige Holdings Ltd, operator of the KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway and TGI Fridays franchises, reported a 49 per cent increase in profit for the first nine months of fiscal 2014. On the recommendation of the board, an interim dividend of 15 cents per common share—up from 2013’s 12 cents per share—was paid Monday to shareholders whose names appeared on the register of members on October 7. 

“For the first nine months of fiscal 2014, group revenue increased by 4 per cent to $697 million, and profit attributable to shareholders increased by 49 per cent from $24.3 million to $36.3 million,” Prestige Holdings chairman Christian Mouttet said in his report on the company’s results, released on the T&T Stock Exchange on September 30.

Mouttet said: “A significant portion of this increase in profitability, when compared to prior year, is due to the $8.7 million write off of our investment in the Barbados TGI Fridays restaurant in the same period last year. Exclusive of this, profit after tax on continued operations and earnings per share increased by 16 per cent.”

These results were generated from an average number of 110 restaurants, he said.

“We continue to see positive trends in our TGI Fridays and Pizza Hut brands driven by exciting food offerings and improving customer experience. More recently, we have seen a slowing of momentum in our two quick service restaurant (QSR) brands, KFC and Subway, primarily due to continuing severe labour challenges which have worsened in recent months,” he said.

Mouttet added: “Management is pursuing initiatives to address this but, ultimately, a macro solution is required at the national level to tackle this problem if we are to have a long term and sustainable solution.

“Based on the current performance we expect improved results for the current year.”

Source:
Aleem Khan
Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday October 22, 2014

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2014-10-22/prestige-holdings-profit-climbs-49