Sea Pearl posts stellar profit growth in FY22

Sea Pearl Beach Resort & Spa Ltd, a well known five-star hotel in Cox's Bazar, registered a staggering 120% growth in its net profit for fiscal year 2021-22, compared to the previous fiscal.

The company says it earned good revenues because of increased utilisation of rooms in peak seasons, its water park being fully operational, and more business from cruise ships and other activities.

In FY22, its revenue increased 44% to Tk92.65 crore, compared to FY21.

Net profit stood at Tk16.13 crore, which was Tk7.37 crore in FY21. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk1.34 in FY22.

It also recommended a 15% cash dividend only for its general shareholders for FY22.

Its annual general meeting (AGM) will be on 22 December with a record date of 17 November.

Sea Pearl's shares soared 140% in the last two months, riding on hopes of an interest waiver by the state-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB).

Its share price on Tuesday stood at Tk131 per share on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), which was below Tk46 at the end of July.

In November last year, the company started a new business of cruise ship tour packages on the Khulna-Sundarban-Khulna route following its investments of Tk8.5 crore in buying two cruise ships.

Sea Pearl's core business is through a franchise agreement signed on 1 June 2014 with the Netherlands-based five-star hotel and resort operator GT Investments BV. They run hotel and resort businesses under the "Royal Tulip" brand.

Sea Pearl started its commercial operations in September 2015.

It started building the hotel in Cox's Bazar with a bank loan. Later, they issued a Tk325 crore bond with an interest rate of 10%, mainly to repay the loan. The secured bond was issued for eight years with a convertibility option for 20% of it.

Later, the company raised Tk15 crore through an initial public offering in 2019.

On 30 September 2022, its sponsors and directors held 46.83%, institutions 26.96%, and general shareholders, 26.21% of its shares.