Sygnus reports 23% decrease in six months net profit

February 16, 2021

In United States dollars (except where it is indicated otherwise):

Sygnus Credit Investments Limited, for the six months ended December 31, 2020, reported Interest Income of US$3.60 million 46% increase on the US$2.47 million recorded in 2019. For the quarter, Interest Income rose 42% to US$1.90 million (2019: US$1.35 million). Interest expense amounted to US$978,304 for the six months (2019: US$116,736). As a result, net interest income for the period amounted to US$2.62 million (2019: US$2.36 million), while for the quarter net interest income closed at US$1.34 million (2019: US$1.27 million).

The Company also reported Fair Value loss of US$168,773, relative to a Gain of US$305,191 booked in 2019 and other income amounted to US$61,033 (2019: US$7,000).

As such, Sygnus reported net revenue of US$2.52 million compared to US$2.67 million. For the quarter, Sygnus booked net revenue of US$1.16 million versus US$1.38 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Management noted, “Core revenues were negatively impacted by a significant year-over-year growth in interest expense related to the timing of the use of debt to finance new investments. Subsequent to Q2 2020, SCI has repaid US$11.6 million in debt from its APO proceeds as at January 31, 2021.”

Total Expenses for the period amounted to US$1.26 million, a 21% increase relative to US$1.04 million recorded for the corresponding period in 2019. Of expenses:

Net foreign exchange loss totalled US$49,951 (2019: US$303,865).

Impairment allowance on financial assets amounted to US$196,446 (2019:US$122,456).

Other expenses for the period amounted to US$361,832 (2019: US$174,877).

Management fees amounted to US$647,802 (2019: US$434,346) for the period under review.

Total expenses for the quarter amounted to US$696,988 relative to US$272,736 recorded for the same quarter of 2019.

Profit for the period amounted to US$1.26 million, 23% down from 2019’s US$1.63 million. As for the quarter the Company booked profit of US$462,756, 58% lower than US$1.10 million for the same quarter of 2019.

As a result, Earnings per share (EPS) for the period amounted to US$0.0036 relative to an earnings per share of US$0.0047 for 2019. EPS for the quarter amounted to US$0.0013 (2019: US$0.0032). The twelve months trailing EPS amounted to US$0.0086. The number of shares used in our calculations amounted to 350,087,563 units. Notably, SCIJA and SCIJMD closed the trading period on February 15, 2021 at a price of $13.06 and $14.50, respectively. SCIUS and SCIUSD closed the trading period on February 15, 2021 at US$0.15 and US$0.15, respectively.

Management noted, “SCI successfully closed its additional public offering (APO) on December 30, 2020, which raised an estimated US$27.1 million (as of the date of the share register on January 26, 2021). The new capital raise was consistent with SCI’s strategy to grow its regional private credit portfolio to at least US$100 million within the next two to three years, while generating at least US$8 million in core revenues. SCI’s Board of Directors will meet to consider an interim dividend payment on February 23, 2021.”

Balance Sheet Highlights

As at December 31, 2020, Sygnus’ total assets amounted to US$71.69 million, a 17% increase on 2019’s assets base of US$61.29 million. This was mainly due to an increase in ‘Investments’ to US$65.11 million (2019: US$52.44 million).

Total Stockholders’ equity as at December 31, 2020, closed at $38.06 million, a 1% decrease from $38.35 million for the corresponding period last year. This resulted in a book value per share of US$0.109 (2019:US$0.110).

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2021-02-16T13:40:36-05:00