Tissue, Hygiene products float Bashundhara Paper

Despite disruptions in production and supply chain, Bashundhara Paper Mills has reported a quarterly growth in both revenue and profit riding on increased demand for its tissue and hygienic products amid the Covid-19 pandemic.  

In the January-March quarter, the revenue grew by 7% and the net profit by 222% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The tissue and hygienic segments have contributed two-third of the total revenue of Bashundhara Paper, which got listed on stock exchanges in 2018.

Bashundhara Paper – engaged in manufacturing paper and paper allied products like tissue and hygienic – leads the market, with a 75% share of the country's tissue industry.

The demand for its tissue and hygienic products went up following the coronavirus outbreak in the country in March last year.

Its peer company Sonali Paper and Board Mills has posted a 15% lower revenue and a 22.39% lower profit compared to the same period of the previous year.

Bashundhara's paper segment business has plummeted and registered lower sales than the pre-pandemic level.

But the segments containing tissue and hygiene products get fuelled after infection worries had gripped people across the country.

Due to the coronavirus, all kinds of paper and paper allied products business both locally and internationally is now absorbing a huge impact and facing a lot of challenges as educational institutions remain closed since March last year.

According to sources in the company, in normal times, around half of revenue comes from paper products and the rest from tissue and hygienic products.

But in the pandemic time, around two-thirds of the revenue of the company has come from tissue and hygienic products.

In the January-March quarter, Bashundhara Paper registered revenue of Tk275.49 crore, which was Tk256.66 crore in the same period of the previous year.

The net profit has increased by 222% to Tk7.29 crore, from Tk2.26 crore, and earnings per share (EPS) to Tk0.42, from Tk0.13, in the same period of the previous year.

"The revenue of the company has increased mainly due to the tissue and hygienic segments as the sales of these products have jumped during the pandemic," M Mazedul Islam, general manager and company secretary of the Bashundhara Paper Mills told The Business Standard.

"The profit has jumped for the tax issue. In this period, the company did not have to pay income tax."

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, its total revenue fell by 1.93% to Tk713 crore, from Tk727 crore, in the same period of the fiscal previous year.

During the period, its net profit rose by 14.58% to Tk20.04 crore, from Tk17.49 crore.

In 2019-2020 fiscal year, the net revenue of the company decreased by 22.59% to Tk854.44 crore, from Tk1103.91 crore in the previous fiscal year, due to the pandemic shock in the January-June period.

As of March 2021, out of the total shares, sponsors and directors of the company held 70.86%, institutional investors 7.69%, and general public 21.45%.