Business: GK Hits $3.7B for Q3

JAMAICAN conglomerate GraceKennedy (GK) saw an uptick in both revenues and profits for the nine-month

period ending September 30, 2018.

For the period under review, Grace posted revenues of $73.8 billion, an increase of $4.5 billion over the same period last year.

This revenue figure generated a net profit of $3.7 billion which, when adjusted for non-recurring gains last year, spells a $415 million increase over the prior period.

Commenting on the group's performance, GraceKennedy CEO Don Wehby said:”We are satisfied with the results. However, we still have work to do to ensure that we maximise shareholder value.

“The company is investing strategically for future growth and efficiency to achieve this objective. We are seeing a 12.6 per cent increase in profit over prior period with the adjustment and we expect continued growth based on our strategy.”

For the nine-month period ending September 30, shareholders' equity came in at $48.4 billion — an increase of $3.2 billion over the same period last year.

There was some good news for shareholders with Grace announcing that an interim dividend payment will be made next month on December 13. This will be $0.50 cents per stock unit, bringing dividends declared to date to $1.35 per stock unit or over $1.3 billion.