November 16, 2021
Lasco Financial Services (LASF), recorded for the six months ended September 30, 2021, a total of $1.08 billion in Trading Income; this represented a 6% decline relative to the $1.15 billion recorded for the comparable period in 2020. LASF stated, “Revenues generated from the Microfinance company, though incrementally improving, is still below that of the previous year. The overall performance is however in line with our targets and growth expectations.” For the quarter, Trading Income closed at $519.69 million (2020: $614.61 million), a fall of 15% year over year.
Other Income for the six months period amounted to $63.53 million significantly higher than the $8.05 million booked in 2020. Consequently, this resulted in an overall income of $1.14 billion for the six months, a decrease of 1% compared to $1.16 billion in 2020.
Operating Expenses for the period closed at $856.83 million, which is 11% less than the $960.90 million recorded in September 2020. Of this, Administrative Expenses increased by 6% amounting to $554.63 million relative to $523.10 million in 2020, also, Selling and Promotional Expenses declined 31% to close at $302.20 million (2020: $437.79 million). Management stated, “Administrative expenses remained relatively flat but Selling and promotional expenses declined due to reduced promotional activity as well as the reduction in estimated credit losses.”
As a result, Profit from Operations for the period rose by 48% to total $288.09 million relative to $194.78 million that was recorded for the corresponding period in 2020. While for the second quarter, Profit from Operations decreased by 40% closing at $129.56 million (2020: $216.82 million).
Finance Cost amounted to $93.35 million for the period (2020: $95.09 million), a decrease of 2%. As for the second quarter, Finance Cost totaled $45.61 million versus $45.33 million in the prior comparative quarter. LASF noted that, “LFSL marginally reduced its Financing costs as we have been paying down our debts and gradually building our cash flow.”
Profit before taxes amounted to $194.74 million in 2021 relative to $99.69 million in 2020, a 94% surge year over year. For the quarter, profit before taxes closed at $83.95 million (2020: $171.47 million).
After taxation of $61.15 million (2020: $69.53 million), Net Profit for the six months ended September 30, 2021 amounted to $133.59 million, increasing by 343% from the prior year’s comparable period Net Profit of $30.15 million. Also, for the second quarter, LASF booked net profit of $58.61 million versus net profit of $135.91 million in the previous comparable period.
Earnings per Share (EPS) for the period amounted to $0.10 (2020: $0.02), while for the quarter, the EPS amounted to $0.05 (EPS 2020: $0.11). The twelve months trailing EPS is $0.20. The number of shares used in the calculation was 1,280,227,726 units. The stock price as at November 15, 2021 closed at $3.23 with a corresponding P/E of 15.89 times.
Balance Sheet Highlights:
As at September 30, 2021, the Company’s assets totalled $4.37 billion, $391.39 million more than its value of $3.98 billion, a year ago. This increase in ‘Total Assets’ was largely driven by increases in ‘Short term deposits’ which closed at $802.11 million (2020: $392.01 million) and ‘Cash and cash equivalents’ which closed at $896.51 million (2020: $653.97 million).
Total Stockholders’ equity as at September 30, 2021 closed at $1.84 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the $1.57 billion reported in 2020. This resulted in a book value per share of $1.44 (2020: $1.23).
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