Bangkok, Thailand-based food giant Charoen Pokphand Foods reported a third-quarter loss, which it blamed on negative impacts of COVID-19 outbreaks in Thailand and Vietnam.
CPF’s net loss in the period was THB 5.4 billion (USD 163.9 million, EUR 143.4 million), down from the net profit of THB 7.5 billion (USD 228 million, EUR 199 million) in Q3 2020.
Lockdowns put in place across Thailand and Vietnam in Q3 to quell COVID-19 case surges hurt consumers’ purchasing power and increased CPF’s operating expenses, the company said in its quarterly report, released 12 November.
CPF’s gross-profit margin also fell to 9 percent, down from 19 percent Q3 2020, due to a drop in swine prices and the increase in its swine-production costs. Its subsidiaries and associates also reported lower profits, primarily due to the poor performances of its China operations and CP All, its convenience store operator in Thailand.
In the first nine months of 2021, CPF earned a net profit of THB 6.3 billion (USD 192.6 million, EUR 168.5 million), a year-over-year decline of 67.8 percent.
The company’s revenue from sales over July-September contracted 20 percent year-on-year to THB 125.94 billion (USD 3.84 billion, EUR 3.36 billion), while the figure for the first nine months was THB 374.9 billion (USD 11.44 billion, EUR 10 billion).
In October 2021, CPF announced it was raising its ownership in CP Pokphand (CPP), its Hong Kong-listed arm, which has aquafeed and livestock operations in Vietnam and China. After transactions to purchase 6.079 million shares of the company’s stock under its plan to privatize the Hong Kong-based firm, CPF will increase its ownership at CPP to 75 percent, from 49.7 percent previously, with the remaining 25 percent held by Japanese trading company Itochu.
Also in October, CPF’s indirect subsidiary, PLANT-TEC Europe, acquired a 50 percent stake in Well Well Invest S.A., a plant-based business in Poland, to “increase product portfolio and customer bases of the company as well as expand its business to plant-based meat business in Poland and Europe.” The remaining shares of the plant-based company are held by ZPS Convita (44.8 percent) and BNP Paribas Bank Polska S.A. (5.2 percent).
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