Staff
Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc.(NASDAQ: NEPT) (TSX: NEPT) delivered its financial and operating results for the first-quarter ending on June 30, 2021 as revenues rose slightly to $12.4 million versus $11.2 million in the fiscal year 2021. Neptune said it exceeded its pre-announced revenue range of $10 to $12 million. First-quarter revenues of $12.4 million increased 83% versus revenues of $6.8 million in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2021. Still, Neptune delivered a net loss of $23 million versus last year’s net loss of $11.4 million for the same time period.
Despite the company’s ability to bring in revenue, the executive management team said it had asked the Board of Directors to form a Strategic Review Committee to evaluate the company’s business plan, capital deployment, and long-term strategy to identify alternatives to enhance shareholder value. These strategic options could include but are not limited to, changes in strategy or operations, strategic business combinations, divestitures, or spin-off of a portion of the company, or continuing to execute the company’s current business plan.
“Our first-quarter revenue exceeded our expectations with sequential improvement of 83% as we delivered innovative products across multiple verticals and expanded our Sprout distribution,” said Michael Cammarata, President and Chief Executive Officer of Neptune Wellness. “The executive team recognized more needs to be done to maximize shareholder value, and we asked the Board of Directors to establish a Strategic Review Committee to explore options to accelerate our path to profitability.”
Gross profit loss of $2.9 million or (23.0%) compared to gross profit of $3.3 million or 29.0% for the comparable period in fiscal 2021. By excluding from costs of sales: depreciation and amortization expenses, various fixed and indirect costs, as well as costs related to SugarLeaf, a consolidated gross profit of 13% could be derived, a positive difference of 36 percentage points when compared to the 23% gross profit loss of the quarter. The adjusted EBITDA loss was $15.9 million compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $2.5 million in the comparable period in fiscal year 2021.
