KARACHI: Engro Foods Limited (EFoods) reported sharp fall of 80 per cent in consolidated profit-after-tax (PAT) for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 to Rs252 million or earnings per share (eps) at Rs0.33, from PAT at Rs1,240m, representing eps at Rs1.62 in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The loss resulted from “other expenses” noted at Rs438m in the latest quarter (July-Sept).

During this quarter, the company carried a huge sum of Rs481m as “loss attributable to discontinued operations”.

Investment analyst Zeeshan Afzal at Topline Securities commented that the loss for the nine months was caused “mainly due to loss incurred on its North American business”.

The analyst added: “In Sept 2014, Engro Foods Netherlands B.V. (100pc owned subsidiary of Engro Foods) entered into a share purchase agreement for the sale of its North American business which included Engro Foods Canada Limited.”

Improvement was noted in the top line in both: 9M2014 to Rs31 billion from Rs28bn in the same time last year; as well as the latest quarter (July-Sept) at Rs10.9bn from Rs9.1bn in the same quarter last year.