Global Sweeteners Holdings Limited provided group earning guidance for the year ended 31 December 2022. The board of directors of the Company informed the shareholders of the Company and potential investors that based on the preliminary review of the Group's unaudited consolidated management accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022 (the "Year") currently available to the Group, the revenue and gross profit of the Group for the Year have
decreased by approximately 50.6% and 34.4% to approximately HKD 359.6 million and HKD 27.3 million, respectively, as compared with the revenue of HKD 728.1 million and gross profit of HKD 41.6 million recorded for the year ended 31 December 2021. The net loss of the Group for the Year has also increased significantly by over 100% as compared with the net loss of approximately HKD 96.3 million recorded for year ended 31 December 2021. The significant increase in net loss was mainly attributable to: (i) the absence of a one-off gain on debt restructuring (amounted to approximately HKD 128.3 million recorded for the year ended 31 December 2021 as a result of the completion of the Group Repurchase Agreements and Other Repurchase Agreements, as defined and previously disclosed in the joint announcements of the Company and Global Bio-chem Technology Group Company Limited dated 26 March 2021 and 31 March 2021) during the Year which led to a significant drop in other income of the Group for the Year as compared with the year ended 31 December 2021; and (ii) the decrease in production volume of the Group due to temporary suspension of production operation of the Group's production facilities in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China, in the second quarter of the Year (the "Temporary Suspension") pursuant to the lock down
measures implemented in Shanghai in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic as announced by the Company on 14 April 2022. Despite the drops in the Group's revenue and gross profit as a result of the drop in sales volume due to the Temporary Suspension, the Group's gross profit margin has actually increased by approximately 1.9% to approximately 7.6 % during the Year as compared to the gross profit margin of 5.7% recorded for the year ended 31 December 2021. Such increase was a result of the improvement in corn sweetener prices and the stringent cost control measures of the Group during the Year.