SINGAPORE - QAF, maker of Gardenia bread, trebled its second quarter net profit to $9.3 million from $3.1 million previously, mainly due to a more favourable foreign exchange movement.

Revenue for the three months to June 30 eased by 2 per cent to $253.6 million.

The slight decline is mainly attributable to the translation effect of a higher Singapore dollar exchange rate versus the domestic currencies in certain countries that the group operates in.

A fall in the Australian dollar against the Singapore dollar resulted in Rivalea (Australia), QAF's fully integrated producer of meat located in Australia, seeing lower sales in terms of Singapore dollars.

Similarly, the group's bakery operations in Malaysia achieved higher sales in Malaysian ringgit but reported lower sales when translated into Singapore dollars due to the lower average exchange rate of the ringgit against the Singdollar.

On the other hand, profit was boosted by a small forex gain this quarter. It had recorded a loss of $4.2 million in the same period last year.

Earnings per share swelled to 1.7 cents from 0.6 cent previously while net asset value per share rose to 73.8 cents compared to 72.6 cents as at Dec 31.

Looking ahead, QAF said it is confident that it will achieve higher profits in the third quarter and for the full year.

It declared an unchanged interim dividend of one cent a share.