Banks DIH tightens belt amidst gloomy global conditions

Jan 31, 2017 News

Beverage giant, Bank DIH Limited, has warned of challenging times ahead for the company,

Banks DIH Chairman, Clifford Reis

in uncertain global conditions.
Speaking Saturday in the Chairman’s Report during Banks 61st Annual General Meeting, Chairman and Managing Director, Clifford Reis, told shareholders that the continuing international economic uncertainty and changing global weather patterns are projected to have negative macro-economic consequences on the nation.
“This will affect the way in which we manage our company in the future. We have to continue to re-examine our core operational competencies, the exercise of prudent fiscal management and preparation of succession planning, to respond to the future challenges of managing our company,” he warned.
The report was for the performance of the Banks DIH Group for the period ended September 30, 2016 with the meeting taking place at Thirst Park, the headquarters.
Banks, which has the Coca Cola and Guinness franchises, has been doing well with its export sales initiatives improving.
“We have now extended into the North American market with the introduction of our rum and wine products and biscuits in the New York to satisfy the Guyanese diaspora,” Reis told the shareholders.
Banks principal activities remain brewing, blending, bottling and wholesale marketing of beers, wines, liquors and assorted beverages, the processing of food items, the operations of restaurants, bars, laundry services, hotel and commercial banking.
For its financial year ended September 30, the group’s third party revenue was $28.76B compared to $27.894 achieved in 2015, an increase of $869M or 3.1 percent.
The profit after tax for the group was $4.7B compared to $3.389B in 2015, an increase of

AGM of Banks DIH underway on Saturday.

$1.3B.
Included in the increase is a gain of $1.4B arising from the sale of ordinary shares in Banks Holdings Limited and Desnoes and Geddes (Jamaica) Limited and the dissolution of BCL Barbados Limited which resulted in a surplus of $29M over the cost of the investment.
Last year, Banks said it doled out $3B in capital spending to buy new trucks, a state-of-the-art filler for its beer plant; accessories for the water bottling plant; upgrades for the electrical power distribution system to its restaurants.
Last year, in a serious dent to its cash, the company re-purchased 150M of its ordinary shares representing 15 percent of the issued share capital from Banks Holdings Limited, a Bajan company it had been doing significant business with. However, Banks Holdings Limited still holds five percent of the issued share capital of the company.
This is because Banks and its Bajan partner, under its new controlling shareholder, Ambev, have now agreed to cooperate in the marketing of beverages in the future.
Reis in his report said that the cost of the re-purchase of the ordinary shares was $5.5B financed through its own cash resources of $4.5B and borrowings of $1B.
The expected impact of the repurchase of the share will be a reduction in capital and reserves attributable to shareholders by an amount equivalent to the consideration given, Reis said in his report.
The group recently opened a brand new Corporate Head Office on Camp Street for Citizens Bank, one of its companies.