Listing candidate and distributor of photographic and audiovisual products Perfect Treasure Holdings says short-term trade orders are making it difficult to forecast profit.
With its new share subscription starting today, the company has promised only satisfactory turnover growth this financial year.
Managing director Wong Shu-yui defended the absence of a profit forecast in the listing prospectus: 'We are in the retail industry, the orders are of short-term nature. It is therefore not appropriate to make a profit forecast.' The company reported a profit of $64.5 million in the financial year to March 31, 1996, with an exceptional item of $5.4 million arising from the reorganising its business prior to the flotation.
That represented a 91 per cent increase over the previous year's $33.78 million.
Turnover dropped slightly last year, compared with a year earlier, from $1.52 billion to $1.37 billion.
'That was due to a deliberate company policy to focus on products with distribution agreements that have a higher profit margin,' Mr Wong said.
The difference in profit margin between products sold under distribution agreements and those without averaged 5 per cent.