Krishibid Seed, a concern of Krishibid Group, has reported a 24 per cent lower profit for FY23, compared to the previous year, owing to a decline in revenue earnings.
The SME company made Tk 23.10 million in profit for the year ended in June 2023, according to a stock exchange filing on Tuesday.
The shrinking profit compelled the company to cut cash dividend to 5 per cent for FY23 from 15 per cent disbursed for FY22.
Company secretary Md Kamal Hossain said profit had gone down mainly for lower sales in the year.
Business was tougher than before because of the stronger dollar, he said, adding that production costs had shot up for rising energy prices.
The local currency lost its value against the dollar about 25 per cent during the period.
However, the company official did not disclose the annual sales revenue data.
Following the earnings disclosure, the stock tumbled 8.44 per cent to Tk 21.40 on Tuesday. It peaked at Tk 46.5 each share in August last year when the SME market soared, buoyed by relaxed rules.
The principal activity of the company is to produce and import different kinds of quality seeds, such as hybrid rice and maize potato.
To secure approval of the shareholders of the dividend, the company called an online annual general meeting on 28 December. The record date is October 30 this year.
Krishibid Seed got listed on the SME board in April last year, by raising Tk 116 million through a qualified offer for building a cold storage depot, storage building, and seed research.
The company has also reported net asset value per share of Tk 11.57 for FY23 as against Tk 12.30 a year ago. The net operating cash flow per share was Tk 1.18 for FY23, increased from Tk 0.30 for the previous year.
The market of quality seeds - supplied by public and private sectors - stood at 0.35 million tones which was only 0.10 million tones a decade ago.
Apart from the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), more than 100 firms, including some non-government organisations, sell seeds, mainly hybrid ones, through around 20,000 registered dealers across the country.
The major players in the domestic seed industry are BRAC Seed, Square Seed, Sajeeb Seed, Partex Seed, Advanta Seeds, ACI-Agribusiness, Akij Foods, Pran Food Processing, Lal Teer, Ananda Agro and Krishibid Group.
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