Margarine Industries Ltd. said its first-quarter normalized net income amounted to a loss of 5.61 Mauritian rupees per share, compared with 1.94 rupees per share in the year-earlier period.

Normalized net income, which excludes unusual gains or losses on a pre- and after-tax basis, was a loss of 1.7 million rupees, compared with income of 582,530 rupees in the prior-year period.

The normalized profit margin dropped to negative 2.4% from 0.7% in the year-earlier period.

Total revenue decreased 12.2% on an annual basis to 70.5 million rupees from 80.3 million rupees, and total operating expenses fell 7.1% on an annual basis to 71.4 million rupees from 76.9 million rupees.

Reported net income came to a loss of 2.6 million rupees, or a loss of 8.75 rupees per share, compared to income of 558,320 rupees, or 1.86 rupees per share, in the prior-year period.

As of May 13, US$1 was equivalent to 35.13 Mauritian rupees.