Beximco suffers massive 64% sales drop in H1

Local conglomerate Beximco Ltd suffered a massive 64 percent or Tk 2,500 crore drop in sales in the first six months of 2023-24 fiscal year due to a fall in exports and domestic demand.

The company sold goods worth Tk 1,441 crore in the last six months of 2023, according to the financial report of the company which operates in different sectors, including trading, textile, denim, knitting, IT, fisheries and real estate.

In the period, the company's cost of revenue also increased due to the disruption in the international supply chain owing to the US dollar crisis, the Russia-Ukraine war and the price hike of gas and electricity, it said.

The jump in the cost of revenue—total cost incurred to produce and sell a product or service—reduced the company's profit by 99.6 percent year-on-year to Tk 2 crore in the last six months of 2023.

Thus, its earnings per share nosedived to Tk 0.03 from Tk 7.35 in the first half of FY23.

The company's sales dropped as higher costs reduced competitiveness of the company's products in the international market, said a top official of the company preferring anonymity as he is not the authorised person to talk to the media.

Due to the higher raw material prices, its costs of revenue rose to 76 percent of its total revenue in the first half of the current fiscal year which was 69 percent in the same period of the previous year.

In the period, its finance costs fell to Tk 267 crore in FY24 from Tk 348 crore in FY23, it said.

Stock prices of Beximco remained the same at Tk 115.6 today, according to the data of the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

Last year, the company announced 10 percent cash dividend for its shareholders.