May 30, 2023

LASF recorded trading income of $2.11 billion, this represents a decline of 13% when compared to $2.43 billion posted at the end of 2022 while trading income for the fourth quarter amounted to $450.88 million (2022: $675.45 million).

Other income increased by 85% to $160.13 million versus $86.69 million in 2022. This resulted in an overall income of $2.27 billion, a fall of 9% when compared to $2.51 billion for the corresponding period in 2022. For the fourth quarter, total income closed at $513.74 million (2022: $673.78 million).

Operating expenses amounted to $1.83 billion, a marginal decline when compared to $1.85 billion booked in the year prior. Of this:

Administrative costs closed at $1.18 billion (2022: $1.10 billion) at end of March 2023.

Selling and promotional costs amounted to $646.83 million (2022: $746.99 million) at the end of the 2023 financial year.

Consequently, profit from operations declined by 32% to a total of $445.60 million relative to the $659.98 million booked last year.  As for the quarter, LASF booked a profit from operations of $68.96 million, down from $138.41 million recorded at the end of 2022.

Finance costs decreased by 30% or $50.26 million to $116.64 million (2022: $166.90 million), resulting in a profit before tax of $328.96 million, 33% down from $493.08 million booked at the end 2022. The company highlighted, “In the 2021 financial year, we refinanced the 9.5% Corporate note which was issued in 2018 and replaced it with a $500M and $700M loan at interest rates of 8% and 7.5% respectively. The Company has since benefited from the lower interest costs resulting in significant savings of $50.2M”. For the quarter, profit before tax closed at $35.79 million relative to a profit of $94.92 million documented twelve months earlier.

Taxes for the period amounted to $115 million (2022: $186.63 million). Net profit closed the period under review at $213.96 million, down from $306.45 million posted in the same period last year. Net profit for the quarter amounted to $26.61 million relative to 2022 fourth quarter net profit of $42.81 million.

LASF noted, “The decrease in earnings indicates the normalization of market share, which reverted after the return to market of a key remittance services competitor at the beginning of the financial year. Our diversified income stream, however, from the other business pillars including Cambio Services, Payments Services and Microfinancing all contributed positively, growing by 36.5% increase over the 2020-2021 financial year.”

Earnings per share amounted to $0.17 (2022 EPS: $0.24), while for the quarter, EPS closed at $0.02 (2022 EPS: $0.03). The number of shares used in our calculations amounted to 1,280,227,726 units. LASF last traded on May 29, 2023, at $2.45 with a corresponding P/E of 14.66x.

Balance Sheet Highlights:

As at March 31, 2023, the Company’s total assets closed the period at $4.56 billion, 2% less than its value of $4.66 billion a year ago. The decline was largely due to ‘Receivables’ which closed at $1.65 billion (2022: $2.02 billion). However, this was tempered by an increase in ‘Short term Deposits’ by $240.70 million to $668.78 million (2022: $428.08 million).

Shareholders’ equity attributable to stockholders of the Company amounted to $2.11 billion relative to $1.96 billion booked in 2022. This translates to a book value per share of $1.65 (2022: $1.53).

Disclaimer: