Farsons considers segmenting non-core operations into distinct plc

Farsons Group reported a marginally improved six monthly performance ending 31 July 2014, when compared to the same period of last year.

Whilst turnover exceeded €41 million, profit for the period after tax amounted to €3.95 million.

“Despite the highly competitive environment, the beverage business in particular, continued to deliver a resilient performance, responding well to market forces,” Farsons Group Chief Executive Norman Aquilina said.

“While innovation and exports continued to contribute towards these results, targeted export growth remained a challenging objective, particularly in view of the recent turmoil in the North African region.”

The franchise food business has been steady, whilst the food importation arm of the group is undergoing a number of changes aimed at improving the business performance.

“Efficiency improvements arising from targeted investments along with cost containment, together with product innovation and export growth will continue to be areas of focus and in line with the group’s strategic vision,” Aquilina said.

On the investment side, construction works on the new €27 million state-of-the-art beer packaging facility are progressing on schedule and the targeted completion date is April 2016.

Group chairman Louis A. Farrugia referred to the company announcement issued on 17 September 2014, where the board approved a concept and design budget for the initial phases concerning the re-use of the non-operational land at Mriehel, referred to as the Farsons Business Park, which work is expected to be completed by June 2015.

“This is another exciting phase in our history which implies a major commitment to the re-organisation of the corporate structure of the Farsons Group,” Farrugia said, that the board will be considering the proposal to spin-off the group’s non-core property interests into a separate and distinct public limited company.

Through this spin-off, it is envisaged that the shareholder value will be enhanced.

The board of directors also recommended an interim dividend of €1 million, similar to last year, and equivalent to €0.0333 per share. The dividend will be paid out of tax exempt profits, payable on 17 October to those registered ordinary shareholders as at 3 October 2014.