Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. (CCH) Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders, compared to a profit attributable to shareholders in the year-ago quarter, with operating expenses increasing sharply from last year.
The company's fourth-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders was EUR 194.8 million or EUR 0.53 per share, compared to a profit attributable to shareholders of EUR 41.3 million or EUR 0.10 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Comparable net profit attributable to shareholders was EUR 2.6 million or EUR 0.01 per basic share, down from EUR 37.6 million or EUR 0.10 per basic share posted a year ago. Net sales revenue grew to EUR 1.592 billion from EUR 1.460 billion in the same quarter last year.
Total quarterly operating expenses climbed to EUR 758.8 million from EUR 496.7 million in the same period last year, largely due to impairment of intangible assets of EUR 189.0 million, which was absent last year.
Volume for the quarter increased to 492.1 million unit cases from 465.0 million unit cases.
For the full year, net profit attributable to shareholders plunged to EUR 227.6 million from EUR 472.3 million in 2007. Earnings per share dropped to EUR 0.62 from EUR 1.30.
Comparable full year net profit attributable to shareholders dropped to EUR 425 million or EUR 1.16 per basic share from EUR 472.3 million or EUR 1.30 per basic share. Net sales revenue grew to EUR 6.981 billion from EUR 6.462 billion in the previous year.
Looking ahead, Doros Constantinou, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Hellenic, said, ''We expect the business environment in 2009 to remain highly challenging. Given the recent significant volatility of currencies in many of our territories and frequent revisions to official economic forecasts, we do not believe it would be meaningful to provide an earnings outlook for 2009.''
CCH closed Friday's regular trade at $14.56, up $0.26, from the previous close.
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