Look at sales for vanity and profits for sanity, as the old chief executives' saying goes, and that was never truer than for Al Babtain Power and Telecommunication Company, where strong revenue belies weak profit.
Al Babtain reported sales revenue for the fourth quarter last year of 267 million Saudi riyals, up 7.7 per cent compared with a year earlier.
Fourth-quarter profit stood at 16m riyals, up almost 70 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier but still nearly 30 per cent below Aljazira Capital analysts' expectations. Profitability for the full year dwindled 5.5 per cent to 74m riyals.
The main problem is higher-than-expected manufacturing costs and lower selling prices. The cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales rose from 79.1 per cent in 2010 to 84.5 per cent last year because of increased raw material prices.
In addition, competition is forcing Babtain to keep prices low. Gross margins fell to 15.5 per cent last year from 20.9 per cent a year earlier. Earnings were also dented by lacklustre performance in Egypt amid political instability in the country.
The company is diversifying.
In February, it acquired France's bankrupt Petitjean, a manufacturer of outdoor lighting and power transmission systems, one of Babtain's specialist areas.
It plans to self-finance the €7.35m purchase, restructure the company over the next two years, and expects the combined entity to generate 20 per cent higher sales.
However, Aljazira forecasts that earnings will register only muted growth in the near term and that margins may shrink after the integration.
The financial impact of the acquisition would be seen from 2015 onwards, it said. Aljazira has revised its rating of Babtain to "neutral".
lmiller@thenational.ae
Japan 30-10 Russia
Tries: Matsushima (3), Labuschange | Golosnitsky
Conversions: Tamura, Matsuda | Kushnarev
Penalties: Tamura (2) | Kushnarev
The Florida Project
Director: Sean Baker
Starring: Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, Willem Dafoe
Four stars
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950