Saudi Arabia’s largest food products company, Savola Group, reported a fourth-quarter loss on Sunday but said it was much smaller than a year earlier due to higher profit margins and a lower impairment loss at one of its subsidiaries.
Its net loss for the three months to December 31, 2017, was SR 37.5 million ($10 million), compared with a loss of SR 915.7 million ($244.2 million) a year earlier.
NCB Capital forecast Savola would make a quarterly net profit of SR 144 million ($38.4 million)
Savola said a higher share of profits from associate companies and lower operating expenses also helped its fourth-quarter performance compared to a year earlier.
It also said an impairment loss, related to operations at one of its subsidiaries, was reduced in the last quarter of 2017 to SR 222 million ($59.2 million) from SR 573.8 million ($153 million) a year ago.
Sales for the fourth quarter, however, fell to SR 5.8 billion ($1.55), from 6.8 billion ($1.81 billion) a year ago.
The company said it would withhold dividend distributions for 2018.
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