John Keells Holdings (JKH) subsidiary John Keells PLC, which has interests in commodity broking, stockbroking and warehouse operations, saw its net December quarter profits (3Q16) falling as much as 91 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs.4.6 million. The revenue fell at a faster pace of 32 percent YoY to Rs.172.9 million than the costs which fell 20 percent YoY to Rs.64 million. This resulted in the company’s gross profit taking 37 percent hit to Rs.108.8 million. The basic earnings per share for the period deteriorated to eight cents from 81 cents recorded YoY.

According to the interim financial accounts released to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), poor performance of produce broking and stockbroking operations contributed to the slump in profits. The produce broking operations for the three months under review only generated a revenue of Rs.93.3 million, down from Rs.137 million YoY. As a result, the segment reported a post-tax loss of Rs.4.1 million, against a post-tax profit of Rs.35.1 million YoY. The stockbroking operations reported depressed numbers as the revenue fell to Rs.55.2 million from Rs.91.7 million.

The segment’s post-tax profits fell to Rs.4.3 million from Rs.29.9 million. The warehousing operations of the company saw a slight drop in its revenue to Rs.24.2 million from Rs.25.5 million. The after-tax profit of the segment fell to Rs.7.2 million from Rs.10 million. As at December 31, 2016, JKH held 86.9 percent of the issued capital of the company while state-owned Bank of Ceylon and private sector pension fund, the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), featured among the top 20 shareholders. The public float of the company as of the same date stood at 13.1 percent.