First Quarter Basic EPS Increased by 163.6% to $0.29 Per Share
QINGDAO, China and ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 11 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Synutra International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYUT, “Synutra”), a leading infant formula company in China, and a producer, marketer and seller of nutritional products for infants, children and adults, today reported results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008. The Company’s strong operational and financial performance is detailed in the Form 10-Q, which has been filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Synutra’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Liang Zhang commented: “Growing market demand, successful marketing programs and increases in our average selling prices were the major contributors to our nutritional product line sales growth in the first quarter. We also made progress on our initiative to increase sales of our higher-priced premium products, exemplified by greater sales of the Super infant formula and the launch of our U-Smart Gold Package. However, the overall gross margin impact of the shift in sales mix toward premium products was offset somewhat by rising raw material costs. Over the course of the year, we will continue to execute our strategy to optimize our high-quality product lines, further strengthen our brand recognition and image, broaden our penetration and increase our national market share.”
Fiscal First Quarter Ended June 30, 2008
Net sales in the first quarter ended June 30, 2008 increased by 88.7% to $127.4 million, compared to $67.5 million for the same quarter in 2007. Gross profit increased by 80.5%, from $37.1 million in the first quarter ended June 30, 2007 to $66.9 million in the first quarter ended June 30, 2008, amounting to 52.5% of sales. First quarter net income increased by 193.0% to $15.6 million, compared to net income of $5.3 million in the same period in 2007. Synutra earned $0.29 per share (basic) in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, up 163.6% from $0.11 earned in the prior year period.
Synutra’s 10-Q is available online: http://www.synutra.com
About Synutra International, Inc.
Synutra operates nine subsidiaries developing, producing, distributing and selling dairy-based nutritional products across the People’s Republic of China. It offers its products for infants, children, adults, pregnant women and nursing mothers under the “Sheng Yuan” or “Synutra” master brand and several sub-brands, including “Super,” “U-Smart” and “U-Strong.” The Group’s extensive sales network covers 29 provinces and provincial-level municipalities in China, and comprises over 420 distributors and over 1,000 sub-distributors who sell Synutra’s products in nearly 63,400 retail outlets.
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