May 30, 2024

LASCO Financial Services Limited (LASF) for the year ended March 31, 2024, reported a 5% decrease in income totaling $2.00 billion compared to $2.11 billion in the corresponding period last year. Income for the fourth quarter had a 13% decrease to close at $393.40 million compared to $450.88 million for the comparable quarter of 2023.

Other Income amounted to $191.87 million (2023: $160.13 million), this represents an increase of 20% year over year.

LASF highlighted, “Total Revenues from core services reflected a downward trend for the year impacted mostly by the contraction of our agent network which led to a decrease in transactions and reduced income from our Subsidiary. There was an increase in contribution from other income of 19.82% or $31.7 million, however this was not sufficient to offset the reductions in revenues from the core services.”

Administrative & other expenses closed at $1.18 billion (2023: $1.18 billion), while selling and promotional costs increased by 9% from $706.56 million in 2023 to $767.19 million in the period under review. As a result, operating expenses for the year amounted to $1.94 billion, a 3% increase relative to $1.89 billion reported in 2023.

Profit from operations for the year amounted to $255.66 million, a 43% decrease relative to $445.60 million reported in 2023. Profit from operations for the fourth quarter amounted to $35.42 million (2023: $68.96 million). Finance Costs totalled $88.96 million, a 24% decrease from the corresponding period last year. (2023: $116.64 million).

Profit before taxation for the year amounted to $166.69 million, a 49% decrease relative to $328.96 million reported in 2023. Profit before taxation for the fourth quarter amounted to $9.69 million (2023: $35.79 million).

Taxation for the year was $4.72 million (2023: $115.00 million).

Net profit for the year amounted to $161.97 million, a 24% decrease from the $213.96 million reported in 2023. For the fourth quarter, net profit was $69.66 million (2023: $26.61 million).

Consequently, Earnings Per Share for the year amounted to $0.13 (2023: EPS: $0.17), while Earnings Per Share for the quarter totaled $0.05 (2023: EPS: $0.02). 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 May 29, 2024, at a price of $1.69 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 13.36x.

Balance Sheet Highlights

The company’s assets totalled $4.44 billion (2023: $4.56 billion). This was mainly attributed to a 60% decline in ‘Short term deposits’ closing at $265.11 million.

Shareholder’s equity was $2.27 billion (2023: $2.11 billion), representing a book value per share of $1.77 (2023: $1.65).

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