PG plc report record full-year results

 

The MSE Equity Price Index continued to rebound higher as it climbed by a further 0.69% to 3,897.787 points. The gains in BOV, PG, HSBC, MIDI, Plaza and Tigné Mall outweighed the decline in BMIT. Meanwhile, GO and MIA both closed flat as overall trading activity was muted at just under €0.06 million. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

PG plc rose to a 10-week high as it advanced by 1.8% to the €2.32 level on two deals totalling 3,300 shares. Today, PG published the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the financial year ended 30 April 2021 whereby it revealed that revenues increased by 7.9% to a record €129.4 million as the growth emanating from the ‘Supermarkets & Associated Retail Operations’ outweighed the decline in revenues within the ‘Franchise Operations’ which came about due to the adverse impact of the pandemic including two lockdown periods in May 2020 and early 2021, as well as the substantial downturn in tourism. Overall, net profit amounted to €10.6 million representing a growth of 9.4% which translates into a return on average equity of just under 23%. In their commentary, the Directors of PG noted that turnover within all the Group’s operations during the first quarter of the 2021/22 financial year (between May and July 2021) registered encouraging growth when compared to the same period last year.

In the retail banking sector, Bank of Valletta plc (+0.6%) and HSBC Bank Malta plc (+1.3%) rose to the €0.90 level and the €0.80 level respectively, across modest trading activity.

Plaza Centres plc added 4.1% to the €0.895 level as 13,000 shares changed hands.

Meanwhile, MIDI plc rebounded by 19.4% as it returned to the €0.418 level across three deals totalling 20,000 shares.

A single deal of 1,600 shares lifted Tigné Mall plc 4% higher to a 6-month high at the €0.78 level.

BMIT Technologies plc shed 0.8% as it retraced back to the €0.492 level across 12,100 shares.

Elsewhere, GO plc closed unchanged at the €3.34 level across 1,912 shares, after touching an intra-day high of €3.36 (+0.6%).

Similarly, Malta International Airport plc remained at the €6.20 level across a single trade of 1,250 shares.

The RF MGS Index fell for the third session in succession as it lost a further 0.09% to a near 6-week low of 1,100.944 points. Today, Germany’s Ifo Institute’s business climate index fell for the second month in a row reportedly as a result of supply bottlenecks for intermediate products in manufacturing and worries about rising infection numbers are putting a strain on the economy. Meanwhile in the US, President Joe Biden’s ambitious domestic agenda took a step forward yesterday after the US House of Representatives approved a USD3.5 trillion budget framework. The progressives within the Democrat party have plans to spend trillions of dollars on a number of social programs but are constantly facing difficulties getting these proposals through Congress given that the party holds razor-thin majorities.