August 7, 2024

LASCO Financial Services Limited (LASF) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, reported a 5% decrease in trading income totalling $512.09 million compared to $539.18 million in the corresponding three months last year.

Other Income amounted to $25.02 million (2023: $35.18 million), this represents a decrease of 29% year over year.

Admin & other expenses decreased by 10% to close at $294.62 million (2023: $327.84 million), while Selling and promotional costs increased by 6% from $178.68 million in 2023 to $190.17 million for the three months period under review. As a result, Operating Expenses for the first quarter amounted to $484.78 million, a 4% decrease relative to $506.52 million reported in 2023.

Profit from Operations for the three months amounted to $52.33 million, a 23% decrease relative to $67.83 million reported in 2023. Finance Costs totalled $20.05 million a 19% decrease from the corresponding period last year. (2023: $24.76 million).

Profit Before Taxation for the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, amounted to $32.29 million, a 25% decrease relative to $43.07 million reported in 2023.

Taxation for the three months had a 40% increase to reach $14.49 million (2023: $24.25 million). Net Profit for the three months amounted to $17.79 million, a 5% decrease from the $18.82 million reported in 2023.

Consequently, Earnings Per Share for the three months amounted to $0.014 (2023: EPS: $0.015). The twelve-month trailing EPS was $0.13, and the number of shares used in these calculations was 1,280,227,726. Notably, LASF’s stock price closed the trading period on August 05, 2024, at a price of $1.83 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 14.56x.

Balance Sheet Highlights

The company’s assets totalled $4.50 billion (2023: $3.82 billion). There was a notable increase in the Receivables which had an increase from last year’s $1.46 billion to $1.93 billion this year which is a 32% increase.

Shareholder’s equity was $2.29 billion (2023: $2.13 billion), representing a book value per share of $1.79 (2023: $1.66).

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