QWI Investments Limited, audited results for the year ended September 2020, reported losses from investment activities of $467.38 million relative to a gain of $394.49 million last year. For the quarter, gain from investment activities of $26.47 million was recorded (2019: $256.12 million).

Administrative and other expenses amounted to $42.25 million (2019: $51.07 million). Operating loss amounted to $509.63 million for the year under review relative to an operating profit of $343.42 million in 2019.

Finance cost, for the year, rose totaling $19.77 million (2019: $12.55 million.  Management stated that, “The Company’s main expenses, during the fourth quarter and the year, were management fees paid to Jamaican Teas and interest expense on the Company’s borrowings. Added to these expenses was a foreign exchange translation loss in the quarter of almost $12 million. Investment decisions are overseen by the members of QWI’s investment committee who are paid an incentive fee, based on the performance of the Company. During the year, no investment fees were incurred.”

Interest income amounted to $1.92 million (2019: nil) for the year under review.

As such, loss before taxation for the year closed at $527.48 million relative to a pre-tax profit of $330.87 million last year. For the quarter, QWI posted profit before taxation of $12.23 million (2019: $212.94 million). QWI noted that for the profit in the fourth quarter, “mainly emanated from gains of $30 million on our overseas share portfolios and some dividend income.” Whereas, for the loss before tax for the year was “due primarily to losses on the Jamaican portfolio of $524 million and $43 million in gains on the overseas portfolios. Dividend income earned for the year amounted to $20 million, offset by operating expenses,” as per QWI.

For the year ended September 2020, QWI recorded tax credit of $133.16 million (2019 tax charge: $82.26 million), thus resulting in net loss for the year under review of $394.32 million (2019 profit: $248.60 million). Notably, for the quarter, QWI recorded profit for the period of $66.73 million versus $136.45 million reported for the quarter ended September 2019.

Loss per share amounted to $0.29 for the year ended September 30, 2020, relative to an earnings per share of $0.18 while the EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.05 (2019: $0.10). The total shares outstanding used for this calculation was 1,365,000,015. Additionally, QWI closed the trading the period on December 24, 2020 at a price of $0.76.

Balance Sheet at a Glance:

As at September 30, 2020, total assets closed at $1.69 billion (2019: $2.56 billion), a 34% decrease. Of this decrease, accounts receivables amounted to $1.09 million (2019: $1.20 billion), respectively. Whereas, investments amounted to $1.63 billion (2019: $1.36 billion).

The total equity as at September 30, 2020 amounted to $1.48 billion (2019: $1.87 billion). This resulted in a net asset value per share of $1.08 (2019: $1.37).

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