TU Reports Record Earnings of ฿6.2Bn in 2020, Offering a Dividend of ฿0.40

Thai Union Group Public Company Limited (TU) has reported its yearly consolidated financial statement of 2020 through the Stock Exchange of Thailand as follows;

TU reported the first time ever above 6 billion baht annual net profit at 6,246 million baht, up 64%YoY. Excluding US antitrust litigation fees in 2019, 2020 net profit still delivered a growth of 20% YoY on a normalized basis. While 4Q20 reported net profit was up 38% YoY at THB 1,457mn, mainly thanks to strong core business. 4Q20 net profit margin was 4.4%, up from 3.2% a year ago. 

4Q20 sales was 33,464 million baht, grew by 1.9% YoY on the back of sales volume growth of 0.8% YoY. The strong sales performance was driven mainly by the ambient seafood business sales growth of 8.8% YoY, as consumers continued social distancing. PetCare and value added business also delivered strong sales growth of 8.0% from higher margin products.

During 4Q20, Thai Baht depreciated YoY against key trading currencies; USD (+1.1%), EUR (+8.9%) and GBP (+3.7%), which partly supported sales growth. Excluding FX impact, TU sales would have declined by - 0.9% YoY. 2020 sales improved 4.9% YoY on the back of a strong volume sales growth of 5.6% YoY. 

4Q20 finance cost decreased 17.6% YoY to 415 million baht. The decrease was thanks to an issuance of perpetual bonds during 4Q19. 2020 finance cost was at 1,724 million baht, down 16.1% YoY, from 2,056 million baht a year ago.

In addition, TU announced the dividend payment from the operation period from June 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 at ฿0.40/share. The dividend book closing date will be on 9 March 2021 with the ex-dividend date on 8 March 2021. The final dividend will be paid on 21 April 2021.