Unagi specialist Man Man's Singapore operator sinks into red less than a year after listing

Business Times

a day ago

[SINGAPORE] Japanese food and beverage (F&B) operator Food Innovators Holdings (FIH) posted a net loss of S$4.1 million for FY2025 ended Feb 28, in a company report on Thursday (Jun 12) with its audited financial statement for the period.
The loss was attributed to the underprovision of certain expenses, such as unrealised foreign exchange losses, depreciation, share options expenses and other administrative expenses of the company.
This is a turn from the S$1.4 million net profit the group recorded in FY2024, and S$43.8 million in revenue for FY2024.
The group's audited statement for FY2025 noted that net cash generated from operating activities stood at S$17.9 million, while a net loss of nearly S$15 million was recorded from financing activities, as compared to the S$11.5 million recorded in its unaudited statement.
'The reason for the change is mainly due to the reclassification of the S$2.9 million of initial public offering (IPO) listing expenses disbursement from operating cash flow to financing cash flow,' said Kubota Yasuaki, chief executive and executive director of FIH.
The company made a lacklustre debut on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange on Oct 16 last year, opening at S$0.20 – 9 per cent below its IPO price of S$0.22. It ended the day at S$0.21.
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It announced that its IPO closed with 14 million of its new shares fully subscribed at S$0.22 apiece the day before.
FIH was incorporated in 2019, and has two main business pillars – food retail in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia; and restaurant leasing and subleasing in Japan.
The group owns and operates various restaurant concepts in Singapore such as unagi restaurant Man Man, tempura rice bowl eatery Tendon Kohaku and lamb barbeque restaurant The Hitsuji Club.
Of late, several other F&B players in Singapore have also faced difficulties keeping up with high rental rates and operating costs amid low demand for restaurant meals. Restaurant operators Tung Lok Restaurants and Japan Food Holdings sunk into the red for FY2025 as well, with the former's net loss for the full year at S$1.8 million, compared to its S$2 million net profit the year before.
This comes as various mid-market operators face challenges in finding their niche, while facing a subdued economic outlook at present and observed cuts on discretionary spending.
As at 11.26 am, shares of FIH were trading flat at S$0.16.