September 17, 2021

The Limners and Bards Limited (LAB), for the nine months ended July 31, 2021, reported a 37% increase in revenues to $942.02 million versus $686.15 million booked in 2020. Revenues for the quarter rose by 50% to $322.94 million (2020: $214.73 million). Management noted that, “the revenue growth was driven by growth in media placement (up $142.4 million or 39.4%) and production (up $115.9 million or 62.2%). There was reduction in agency (down $2.4 million or 1.8%) during the period.”

Cost of operating revenue rose by 43% for the period to $657.22 million (2020: $458.71 million). Consequently, gross profit for the period rose by 25% closing at $284.80 million compared to $227.44 million for the same period last year. For the quarter, gross profit increased 35% to $82.33 million (2020: $61.05 million).

The Company reported a 33% increase in administration expenses to $157.08 million (2020: $118.47 million), management noted that the increase was as a result of “staff costs (due to increase work volume), repairs and maintenance of production equipment, depreciation and amortization charges and lease interest.” Whereas, selling and distribution expense decreased less than 1% to $536,986 (2020: $538,564). For the quarter, the Company reported a 44% increase in administrative expenses which closed the quarter at $57.11 million (2020: $39.77 million).

Consequently, profit before net finance and taxation rose by 17% to $127.18 million (2020: $108.43 million).

Net finance income amounted to $14.91 million compared to net finance cost of $361,896 for the same period in the prior year. This consisted of finance income of $20.53 million (2020: $3.65 million) and finance cost of $5.62 million (2020: $4.01 million).

LAB booked an income in value of investment classified as FVTPL of $91,331, relative to a loss of $257,874 booked in 2020.

Profit before taxation amounted to $142.18 million (2020: $107.81 million). No taxation charge was booked for the period (2020: nil), as such net profit for the nine months grew by 32% to $142.18 million (2020: $107.81 million). Net profit for the quarter was reported at $28.62 million compared to $21.14 million booked in the corresponding quarter of 2020.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the nine months amounted to $0.15 compared to $0.11 in 2020, while for the quarter EPS amounted to $0.030 versus $0.022 documented in the prior comparable quarter. The twelve months trailing EPS amounted to $0.17. The number of shares used in our calculations is 945,690,252 units. Notably, LAB’s stock price closed the trading period on September 17, 2021 at a price of $3.86 with a corresponding P/E of 22.61 times.

 Balance Sheet Highlights: 

As at July 31, 2021, the Company reported total assets of $826.96 million, a 29% rise when compared to $642.12 million a year ago. This was mainly as a result of ‘Cash and cash equivalents’, ‘Accounts Receivable’ and ‘Right of use asset’ which closed at $448.65 million (2020: $383.79 million), $183.70 million (2020: $126.33 million) and $96.03 million (2020: $52.99 million), respectively.

Shareholders’ Equity as at July 31, 2021 was $536.42 million compared to $444.96 million a year ago. This resulted in a book value per share of $0.57 compared to $0.47 in 2020.

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