Sonali Paper’s profit sees 235% annual growth

Sonali Paper and Board Mills, a concern of Younus Group of Industries, posted a 235% year-on-year profit growth for FY21, bouncing back from the Covid-19-induced shocks.

On Thursday, the company's board of directors in a virtual meeting recommended dividends for stockholders while accepting the audited financial statements.

They decided to give a 20% cash and 20% stock dividends to shareholders, the highest over the last decade, as its profit jumped.

The stock dividend has been declared to enhance paid-up capital as a re-investment in the company, said the company in its price sensitive information (PSI).

Its net profit was also the highest in the last eight years from FY14 to FY21 as per data available, despite a bad time for the paper industry amid the pandemic.

According to the sources, as educational institutions were closed owing to the pandemic for more than one and a half years, the paper industry fell into crisis with low sales.

As a result, the listed-companies in the paper sector posted lower revenues and profits compared to those of the previous year.

But, Sonali Paper and Board Mills has posted a 235% year-on-year growth in profits based on other incomes although the revenue growth is only 0.42% for FY21.

In this fiscal year, the company earned Tk141.46cr in revenue while its net profit after tax jumped to Tk8.94 crore.

One year ago, in FY20, the revenue was Tk140.86 crore and profit Tk2.67 crore.

The earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk4.89, which was Tk1.46 one year ago.

The company says the declared dividends are out of the distributable profit of the company for 30 June 2021.

Earlier in FY20, the company had paid a 5% cash and 10% stock dividend to its shareholders.

The company said during the financial year, its sales and other incomes increased as net profit and EPS increased year-on-year.

The Sonali Paper and Board Mills

Sonali paper & Board mills (SPBML) is one of the major concerns of Younus Group of Industries, which was incorporated in 1977.

The company was listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in 1985 and on the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) in 1996.

The principal activities of the company are manufacturing of media, liner, simplex, duplex paper board, and quality papers including newsprint & white news.

Under the previous management, the company had incurred huge losses and failed to provide financial statements and hold annual general meetings for consecutive years from 1998 to 2006. 

And the company was transferred to the Over-the-Counter (OTC) platform for weak fundamentals.

Younus Group extended its hand to take over the company buying all shares in 2006 for the regeneration of the company.

After taking over the company in 2007, the group took the necessary steps to re-generate the company.

After 17 years into acquisition, the new management of the company has applied to return to the main board of stock exchanges in 2020.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has approved the application and it's re-listed on the stock exchange in 2020.

The share trading resumed on 26 June of that year.

On Thursday, the share price of the company was Tk452.5 each, which is 4.56% lower than in the previous day.

On Wednesday, the share price was Tk474.10 each on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

As of 31 August, sponsors and directors of the company hold 72.06% share of the company, institutional investors 2.13% stake, and the general public 25.81%.