February 9, 2022
Lasco Financial Services Limited (LASF), for the nine months ended December 31, 2021 recorded trading income of $1.75 billion; this represented a 4% increase when compared to $1.67 billion posted in 2020, while trading income for the quarter amounted to $668.38 million (2020: $527.18 million). Other income increased significantly to $88.36 million versus $13.03 million in 2020. This resulted in overall income of $1.84 billion, an expansion of 9% compared to $1.69 billion for the corresponding period in 2020.
Operating expenses amounted to $1.32 billion, 1% more than the $1.30 billion booked the year prior. Of this, selling and promotional expenses rose marginally to close at $490.48 million relative to the $490.28 million reported in the prior period, “due to the rise in transactions and associated variable costs, the increased market presence to support new services and increased estimated credit loss taken as loan customers were impacted by September no movement days,” as per LASF. Administrative expenses experienced a negligeable growth of 2% to $826.09 million compared to the $807.09 million in 2020.
As a result, profit from operations rose 34% to total $521.57 million, relative to the $390.46 million recorded last year. Profit from operations for the quarter grew by 19% to close at $233.48 million (2020: $195.68 million).
Finance costs decreased to $123.41 million (2020: $140.96 million), resulting in a profit before tax of $398.16 million, relative to the $249.50 million booked for 2020. For the quarter, pre-tax profit closed at $203.42 million (2020: $149.82 million).
Net profits attributable to shareholders totaled $263.64 million, 71% increase from $153.91 million posted for the same period last year, followed by taxes for the period of $134.52 million (2020: $95.59 million). Net profit for the quarter amounted to $130.05 million relative to $123.76 million booked in 2020.
Earnings per share for Lasco Financial Services Limited (LASF) amounted to $0.21 (2020: $0.12). EPS for the quarter totaled $0.102 (2020: $0.097), while the twelve-month trailing earnings per share amounted to $0.21. The number of shares used in our calculations amounted to 1,280,227,726 units. LASF closed the trading period on February 9, 2022 at $3.32 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 15.95 times.
Balance Sheet Highlights:
As at December 31, 2021, the company’s assets totaled $4.52 billion (2020: $3.98 billion), $536.35 million or 13% more than its value a year ago. This increase was largely due to ‘Cash and Cash Equivalents’ which rose from $570.39 million in 2020 to $998.22 million in 2021. Also, ‘Short-term Deposit’ which increased to $604.55 million (2020: $415.43 million) contributed to the asset growth.
Equity attributable to stockholders of the company amounted to $1.92 billion relative to $1.69 billion in 2020. This translates to a book value per share of $1.50 (2020: $1.33).
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