Transcontinental (TCL-A.TO) on Wednesday reported a 5.9% year-over-year drop in its fiscal second-quarter profit as lower revenue, higher financial expenses and reduced adjusted operating earnings weighed on overall profitability.
The company's adjusted profit, excluding most one-time items, dropped to $16 million, or $0.19 per share, in the quarter ended April 26, down from $17 million, or $0.20, in the year-prior quarter. This decrease is mainly due to the increase in financial expenses and the decline in adjusted operating earnings before depreciation and amortization, partially mitigated by lower adjusted income taxes.
Revenue fell 5%, to $269.2 from $283.3 million. The company attributed the drop to "lower volume in our two sectors, partially mitigated by our recent acquisitions and, to a lesser extent, the favourable exchange rate effect".
In its outlook, the company said that the closing of the sale of its Packaging business represents a "key milestone". "This transaction allows us to focus our resources on our growth strategy, in particular in in-store marketing and educational publishing activities.
For fiscal year 2026, the company anticipates lower volume in its traditional activities, including book printing which experienced very high growth in fiscal year 2025. This decrease should be partially offset by growth in its in-store marketing activities, including the positive impact of acquisitions. At the consolidated level, following the positive impact of cost reduction initiatives, the company expects adjusted operating earnings before depreciation and amortization from continuing operations for fiscal year 2026 to remain stable compared to fiscal year 2025.
The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share payable on July 20, 2026, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 29.
"Thanks to the initiatives implemented to increase profitability, we are on track for an improved financial performance in the second half of fiscal year 2026 and to meet our outlook of stable adjusted operating earnings before depreciation and amortization from continuing operations for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal year 2025," said chief executive Sam Bendavid,
The shares of the company closed down $0.08 to $5.22 on Toronto the Toronto Stock Exchange.