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Whilst most investors have been focussed on logistics multinational and latest most valuable Expolanka Holdings PLC, another industry entity much smaller Chrissworld has seen its own blossoming time.
In the month of August to date, Chrissworld share price has increased by 69% to Rs. 23, placing it as the fourth-best performer, one notch behind Expolanka.
Its IPO was at Rs. 7.50 per share and Chrissworld created history as the first to be on the CSE’s SME-centric ‘Empower Board’.
The last two weeks have seen more trading on Chrissworld shares than in recent months. It was among the top five gainers percentage-wise (37.7%) or Rs. 6.30 with over 12 million shares changing hands via 7,055 trades for Rs. 314.3 million. Intra-week it touched an all-time high of Rs.34.
In the previous week over 6 million Chrissworld shares traded for Rs. 99.7 million with share price up Rs. 3.80 to Rs. 16.70.
Recent high volume reflects renewed interest in Chrissworld which saw only 0.8 million shares traded in the entirety of July for Rs. 11.8 million turnover, closing at Rs. 13.60.
Whilst improved outlook for logistics may be a cause for investor interest, Chrissworld has achieved impressive performance in the first quarter of FY22 as well.
In 1Q, it achieved a top line of Rs. 86.57 million up by a significant 67% from the corresponding quarter of 2020.
Gross Profit in 1Q grew by 105% to Rs. 22.3 million. Chrissworld’s bottom-line net profit after tax was a healthy Rs. 6.05 million, bouncing back from a negative position in the corresponding period of 2020.
The turnaround follows a positive position for the company at the end of the FY21 ending up with a profit after tax of Rs. 11.65 million. Though this figure is below what was achieved in 2019, mainly due to the impact of the COVID pandemic and a prolonged lockdown of the country in the 1Q of the FY, the result was much higher than the forecasted profit in the company’s prospectus for the IPO.
For Chrissworld, FY22 has posed challenges in terms of securing warehousing space for a surge in short term demand for storage solutions in the marketplace, stemming mainly from various policy decisions of the authorities.
Storage rates have shot up in recent months, making it tougher for potential clients to control their ever-increasing logistics cost. However, Chrissworld is to continue to look at serving their clients at economic rates, understanding the difficult situation that most clients are faced at present.
“We at Chrissworld remain cautiously optimistic for this year. Learning from the first impact of the pandemic last year and how the company should navigate this kind of storm, this year the pandemic has brought out the energy of the team to look at different strategies to come out on top of the situation,” a spokesman said, adding results of those strategies are reflected in the financials of FY22 so far this year.
Since its debut on the CSE, the share price of Chrissworld has been a top performer, especially in recent weeks in tandem with the bull run.
