Tunisia's Poulina Group posts $67 million profit for 2025 on financial gains

One of Tunisia's largest conglomerates has reported a sharp rise in annual profit, though a closer look at the numbers shows the gains owe more to financial engineering than to the factories at the group's core.

Poulina Group Holding lifted its consolidated net income for 2025 to about $67 million (204.9 million dinars), a jump of 26.4 percent over the prior year. Revenue climbed a more modest 3.5 percent to roughly $1.17 billion (3.569 billion dinars), and the company rewarded shareholders with a dividend increase and a bonus share issue, presenting the results as evidence of disciplined management in a difficult economy.

The headline profit growth is genuine, but its sources are worth parsing. Of the additional 42.8 million dinars in net income, operating profit contributed just 2.9 million dinars, or about 7 percent. The rest came from elsewhere: lower net financial charges, a bigger contribution from associated companies held outside the group, smaller losses on asset disposals and a favorable swing in extraordinary items. In other words, the industrial engine held steady while finance did the heavy lifting.

That distinction matters for a group whose identity is built on manufacturing. Poulina spans agri-food, poultry integration, steel processing, wood products, household appliances, ceramics, packaging, real estate and construction, and it is those operations that investors watch most closely. Agri-food remained the largest revenue contributor at 42 percent, or 1,749 million dinars, followed by poultry integration at 27.6 percent and trade and services at 9.6 percent.

Some operating metrics did improve. Gross profit rose 6.3 percent to 1,329.9 million dinars, lifting the gross margin to 37.4 percent, which the company attributed to tighter procurement and a better product mix. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization edged up 2.4 percent to 627.1 million dinars, with the margin holding at 17.6 percent. The picture is one of stability rather than expansion at the industrial level.

Exports offered another bright spot. International sales reached 344 million dinars, or about 10 percent of the total, led by steel transformation at 40 percent and agri-food products at 34 percent. Poultry integration and agri-food, which together account for roughly 70 percent of group revenue, were the main growth drivers, rising 6.6 percent and 7.4 percent respectively.

Shareholders came away with more cash and more paper. The dividend per share rose 48.9 percent to 0.670 dinars, a substantial increase that signals confidence from the board. The group is also carrying out a capital increase by incorporating reserves, lifting its capital from 180 million to 189 million dinars and issuing free shares at a ratio of one new share for every 20 held.

Behind the numbers sits a company weighing bigger structural moves. Poulina is preparing a spin-off of its agri-food operations and plans to roughly double its investment effort, steps that would reshape the group and, management hopes, reinvigorate an industrial base that merely held its ground in 2025. New projects in the pipeline include a brickworks costing 250 million dinars at Tajerouine and a plant at Gabes that will put a Poulina patent for animal-feed additives into production.

The group has also leaned into sustainability. It has deployed solar installations across dozens of sites, cutting energy use and emissions, while pushing its solid-waste recycling rate to 95 percent and its water-reuse rate to 72 percent, well above national targets. On the social side, it converted thousands of precarious contracts into permanent roles and integrated large numbers of subcontractors, part of a governance drive that also centralized internal audit.

Poulina's roots run deep in the Tunisian economy. The group was founded in 1967 by the late Abdelwahab Ben Ayed and grew into one of the country's most important private employers, with a workforce numbering in the thousands and operations that touch daily life through food, appliances and building materials. Its listing on the Tunis exchange makes it a bellwether for corporate performance in a country navigating a complex economic environment.

The results land as a broader question hangs over the company. The strength of the 2025 profit rested on financial and non-recurring factors, which means the coming year will test whether the planned agri-food spin-off and the heavier investment program can lift the industrial core rather than leave profitability dependent on the balance sheet. Management has framed the year as confirmation of a resilient trajectory, and the numbers support that framing on the surface.

What they do not yet show is a manufacturing base growing under its own power. That is the challenge Poulina carries into 2026, and the one its next set of results will be measured against.