KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Food Bhd (BFood), which operates the Kenny Rogers Roasters chain of restaurants in Malaysia, saw its net profit rise 21.5% to RM6.41 million or 1.72 sen per share for its fourth quarter ended April 30, 2015 (4QFY15) from RM5.28 million or 1.98 sen per share a year ago, mainly due to the full effect of consolidation of the newly-acquired wholly-owned subsidiary, Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Co Sdn Bhd (BStarbucks).

Revenue for 4QFY15 more than tripled to RM128.92 million from RM36.55 million in 4QFY14.

BFood also declared a third interim dividend of two sen per share for full-year FY15, payable on July 28. This brings the total amount for the full year to 5.75 sen per share compared with 4.25 sen in FY14.

For the 12-month period, net profit rose to RM184.66 million from RM22.67 million in FY14, while revenue jumped 150.95% to RM377.36 million from RM150.37 million.

“The higher pre-tax profit was mainly attributed to the consolidation of the improved results of BStarbucks and the contribution of the Brunei Starbucks operations, in spite of the high interest expenses of about RM8.86 million (which includes amortisation of transaction cost of about RM822,000), which is substantially related to the financing of the acquisition of the remaining 50% equity interest in BStarbucks,” BFood said in a statement yesterday.

On prospects, BFood said the weakening of the ringgit against the US dollar is expected to increase the cost of sales and thus compress the group’s profit margin.

“Coupled with the weak consumer sentiment brought on by the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) and various other factors, the group will be operating in a challenging environment in the next financial year,” it added.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 16, 2015.