Asia Bio-Chem Group Corp. Announces First Quarter Financial Results

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[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE\nUNITED STATES/\n\nTSX Venture: ABC\n\n\nTORONTO, May 15 /CNW/ - Asia Bio-Chem Group Corp. (TSXV: ABC) ("Asia\nBio-Chem" or the "Company") today announced its interim financial statements\nfor the three month period ending March 31, 2009.\n\n\nInterim Financial Results\n\nHighlights\n\n- Excluding the (non-cash) stock-based compensation expense, income\n from operations and EBITDA during the first quarter of 2009 was\n $0.7 million and $1.1 million respectively.\n\n- The Daqing plant construction is on schedule with approximately\n $65 million of construction in progress incurred as of\n March 31, 2009.\n\n- The Company has secured debt financing from both the\n China Construction Bank and Zhaoyuan County Government. The total\n amount of these facilities is RMB 135 million ($25 million) of which\n RMB 35 million ($6.4 million) has been drawn down as at\n March 31, 2009, approximately RMB 20 million ($3.6 million) received\n subsequent to March 31, 2009, and approximately RMB 80 million\n ($15 million) is being negotiated with the PRC government.\n\n- As at March 31, 2009, the Company had $3.0 million in cash and\n $6.4 million in bank debt.\n\n\nAsia Bio-Chem, today reported first quarter sales of $19.0 million\nrepresenting a 4.3% decline compared to the corresponding period of 2008.\nLower selling prices and volumes contributed to this reduction.\n\n\nGross margin declined to $2.7 million during the quarter representing a\n52.4% decrease over the same quarter of 2008. This reduction was primarily due\nto lower selling prices particularly in germ, fiber and starch products as\nwell as a reduction in sales volume.\n\n\n"The challenging market conditions from our fourth quarter continued into\nthe first quarter of 2009 as the economic slowdown in China coupled with\ngovernment purchases of corn had a negative effect on our gross profit,"\nstated Mr. Zhiping Wang, President and CEO of Asia Bio-Chem.\n\n\nDuring the first quarter, stock-based compensation expense of $1.2\nmillion and higher general and administrative expenses associated with the\nCompany's public company status caused income from operations to decline to a\nloss of $0.5 million.\n\n\nSUMMARY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS\n\nin thousands of Canadian dollars\n except...

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