Date: July 20, 2018

Lasco Distributors Limited (LASD), for the three months ended June 30, 2018, posted a 4% growth in revenues to $4.28 billion, up from $4.13 billion in the corresponding period in 2017. Cost of sales amounted to $3.41 billion relative to the $3.31 billion posted for the prior year.

Gross profit also recorded an increase for the quarter, up by 6%, closing at $871.44 million compared to the $821.06 million reported the same period for the prior quarter. This represented an increase of $50.39 million.

Other operating income jumped 132%, to end the quarter at $42.70 million compared to the $18.43 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

Operating Expenses grew by 6.% to end the period at $660.40 million (2017: $622.41 million).

Operating Profit improved 17% to close at $253.74 million relative to $217.08 million for the comparable period of 2017. Finance costs increased 23%, totaling $172,000 for the period compared to $140,000 in the year prior.

Pre-tax profits totaled $253.57 million, an increase of 17% from the $216.94 million for the prior year. Net Profit for the quarter saw a 19% increase closing at $233.64 million (2017: $196.86 million), after tax charges of $19.93 million (2017: $20.08 million).

Earnings per share for the three months ended June 2018 totaled  $0.07 (2017: $0.06). The trailing EPS amounted to $0.03. The number of shares utilized in our calculations amounted to 3,490,794,739 units. Notably, LASD’s stock price closed the trading period on July 19, 2018, at a price of $4.00.

Balance sheet at a glance:

At the end of the quarter, Total assets increased 13% to close at $8.49 billion (2017:$7.53 billion). Total non -current assets amounted to $1.60 million, an 8% increase over the corresponding period last year. Notably, Property, Plant and Equipment closed at $1.47 billion, an increase of 6% over the previous year. The Company noted “This increase resulted from investment in equipment and warehouse infrastructure.” ‘Receivables’ and ‘Inventories’ also contributed to this increase in assets with an 18% and 14% growth respectively to $2.92 billion (2017: $2.48 billion) and $2.28 (2017: $2.01 billion) respectively.

Shareholders equity amounted to $4.81 billion as at June 30, 2018 (2017: $4.25 million), reflecting an increase of 13%  This resulted in book value per share of $1.38 (2017: $1.22).

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