February 10, 2025

LASCO Financial Services Limited (LASF) for the nine months ended December 31, 2024, reported a 6% decrease in Income totaling $1.51 billion compared to $1.60 billion in the corresponding period last year. Income for the third quarter had a 6% decrease to close at $492.61 million compared to $525.17 million for the comparable quarter of 2023.

Other Income amounted to $77.48 million (2023: $102.83 million), this represents a decrease of 25% year over year.

Admin & other expenses decreased by 4% to close at $892.09 million (2023: $927.52 million), while Selling and promotional costs increased by 10% from $560.00 million in 2023 to $615.06 million in the period under review. As a result, Total operating expenses for the nine months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $1.51 billion, a 1% increase relative to $1.49 billion reported in 2023.

Profit from Operations for the nine months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $80.22 million, a 64% decrease relative to $220.23 million reported in 2023. Profit from Operations for the third quarter amounted to $727,000 (2023: $81.40 million).

Finance Costs totalled $62.18 million a 2% decrease from the corresponding period last year. (2023: $63.23 million).

Profit Before Taxation for the nine months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $18.04 million, an 89% decrease relative to $157.01 million reported in 2023. Loss Before Taxation for the third quarter amounted to $20.65 million (2023: $61.07 million).

Taxation for the nine months ended December 31, 2024 had a 49% decrease to reach $32.98 million (2023: $64.69 million). As such, Net Loss for the nine months amounted to $14.94 million, a 116% decrease from Net profit of $92.32 million reported in 2023. For the third quarter, Net Loss was $24.09 million (2023: Net profit $36.31 million).

Consequently, Loss Per Share for the nine months amounted to $0.01 (2023: EPS: $0.07), while Loss Per Share for the quarter totaled $0.02 (2023: EPS: $0.03). The twelve-month trailing EPS was $0.04 and the number of shares used in these calculations was 1,280,227,726.

Notably, LASF’s stock price closed the trading period on February 10, 2025, at a price of $1.60 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 37.44x.

Balance Sheet Highlights

The company’s assets totalled $4.19 billion (2023: $4.00 billion). The growth in total assets was driven mainly by a $577.63 million uptick in ‘Cash and cash equivalents’, while ‘Short-term deposits’ and ‘Receivables’ declined by $192.55 and $248.87 million, respectively, to partly offset the movement during the period.

Shareholder’s equity was $2.26 billion (2023: $2.20 billion), representing a book value per share of $1.76 (2023: $1.72).

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