Durrant Pate/ Contributor

AMG Packaging & Paper Company is reporting a bumper half-year, as it manages to contain manufacturing costs as net profit surged by 70% for the period ended February 29.

Total manufacturing costs were cut by 9.0%, moving to J$325.15 million. This is coming from J$355.60 million last year. Consequently, gross profit increased by 36% to J$197.35 million compared to $145.22 million for the half-year under review.

The company booked gross profit of J$95.75 million for the second quarter versus J$71.80 million reported for the similar quarter of 2023. Admin expenses, however, increased by 20% to close at J$65.67 million (2023: J$54.78 million), while depreciation expenses went up by 26% from J$20.89 million in 2023 to J$26.33 million.

As a result, total expenses for the six months amounted to $101.95 million, a 16% increase relative to J$87.85 million reported in 2023.

Slight increase in revenue

For the six months, revenues went up by a mere 4.0% to J$522.50 million compared to J$500.82 million in the corresponding period last year. Revenue for the second quarter inched up 1% to close at J$250.01 million compared to J$246.54 million for 2023.

Finance cost totalled J$4.56 million, a 1,875% increase from the corresponding period last year. Taxation for the half-year went up 82% to reach J$28.13 million (2023: J$15.42 million).

As a result, net profit surged to J$71.83 million, representing a 70% increase from the J$42.18 million reported in 2023. For the second quarter, net profit closed on J$31.97 million (2023:J $17.84 million).

Consequently, earnings per share (EPS) for the six months amounted to J$0.14 (2023: EPS: $0.08), while EPS for the second quarter totalled J$0.06 (2023: EPS: J$0.03). Notably, AMG’s stock price closed trading last week at a price of J$3.20, with a corresponding P/E ratio of 13.76x.

Balance sheet highlights

AMG Packaging & Paper’s assets totalled J$1.68 billion (2023: J$1.58 billion). The growth in total assets was mainly due to a 76% uptick in ‘Cash & Cash Equivalents’ at J$252.13 million (2022: J$143.52 million).

Shareholder’s equity was J$1.29 billion (2023: J$1.23 billion), representing a book value per share of J$2.53 (2023: J$2.39).