SNACK food giant Monde Nissin Corp. significantly narrowed its net loss in 2023 to P625 million from the P13.02 billion incurred a year earlier.

The loss was mainly due to a non-cash, non-operating impairment of assets in the meat alternative business following a higher weighted average cost of capital, Monde Nissin told the stock exchange on Thursday.

"For meat alternatives, we continue to face a challenging environment, which necessitated us incurring a further impairment of P10.1 billion after tax," Henry Soesanto, the company's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The impairment was partly offset by the financial support of the controlling family shareholders, "such that retained earnings were minimally impacted at the level of the listed parent company," he noted.

Monde Nissin said that net sales climbed 9.2 percent to P80.2 billion in 2023 from P73.4 billion a year earlier, fueled by broad-based volume growth in its Asia-Pacific branded food and beverage (APAC BFB) segment, which offset the relatively weak performance of its meat alternatives business.

"The APAC BFB business saw strong topline growth and profitability, driving record revenues and translating into strong operating cash flows. This growth was aided by both volume and price across all our categories," Soesanto said.

Monde Nissin said that its financial position remained strong, with cash and cash equivalents amounting to P16.7 billion and outstanding debt totaling P4.9 billion at the end of last year.

On Thursday, the company also announced plans to re-allocate some proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) to finance the capital expenditure (capex) of its APAC BFB business.

Monde Nissin said its board, in a meeting on Wednesday, approved the realignment of unused proceeds of P228.8 million that had been previously earmarked for IPO-related expenses.

"The reallocation arises from underspending in the friction cost budget for the IPO," the food and beverage giant added.

In 2021, the company completed the country's largest IPO listing and successfully raised P48.6 billion, with the majority of the proceeds being allocated for capex.

The Monde Nissin board also authorized the declaration of regular cash dividends amounting to 12 centavos per outstanding common share for stockholders on record as of May 10.

The cash dividends are payable on or before June 5 and will be taken from unrestricted retained earnings at the end of last year.

"Monde shall request stockholders to provide account details or other reference numbers needed for the transfer," the company said, adding that stockholders who are unable to provide such details "shall receive their dividend payout by check, which will be available for pickup at designated offices."

Shares in Monde Nissin closed 4.19 percent, or 46 centavos, lower at P10.52 each on Thursday amid a 0.94-percent drop for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.