Pelikan 3Q net profit declines 19% to RM3.49 mil

by **Cals** Tue 25 Nov 2014, 00:13

Pelikan 3Q net profit declines 19% to RM3.49 mil

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Stationery manufacturer Pelikan International Corp Bhd ([You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Financial Dashboard) registered a 19% drop in its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014 (3QFY14), to RM3.49 million or 65 sen per share from RM4.32 million or 85 sen per share on declining sales of certain wholesale and printer-consumable customers.

Revenue for the quarter slipped a marginal 1% to RM401.53 million from RM405.97 million.

For the cumulative nine months to Sept 30, 2014 (9MFY14), Pelikan registered a 145% increase in net profit to RM9.51 million or RM1.80 per share from RM3.88 million or 76 sen per share a year ago, thanks to its re-organisation initiative and improvement in cost structure. Revenue for the period, however, slipped 2% to RM1.10 billion from RM1.12 billion previously, the group's filing to Bursa Malaysia today showed.

Pelikan is en route to listing its subsidiary in Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany for a minimum of €1 per share that will be done through an asset streamlining exercise, in which it will inject its core stationery business into its 71.32%-owned Germany-listed subsidiary, Herlitz AG.

To recap, Pelikan had on Nov 10 signed a heads of agreement with Herlitz to inject its subsidiaries and assets into Herlitz for a consideration of €231.2 million (RM971 million) in exchange for the issuance of 231.2 million new shares having a nominal value of €1 per share in Herlitz.

The group had said that the injection value of €231.2 million represents a discount of €18 million or 7.2% to the valuation of €249.2 million by PricewaterhouseCoopers in Berlin.

The asset streamlining exercise, it said, will also entail the proposed issuance of new shares and offer for sale that is expected to raise gross proceeds of €92.9 million, which will be utilised to further develop its businesses, for working capital, and to repay borrowings.

"We expect the exercise to be completed by the first quarter of 2015. With that, the Pelikan Group will have a firmer footing in its core stationery operation, especially in our Germany business where we can then better deploy resources and serve our customers under the new merged entity. This will eventually pave the way for a brighter and more sustainable growth outlook for our enlarged core stationery group, which we will rename asPelikan AG," said Pelikan president and chief executive officer Loo Hooi Keat in a media statement on the group's results today.

Shares in Pelikan has fallen by 21.71% from RM1.52 on June 30 to close at RM1.19 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM652.6 million.