February 9, 2024

LASCO Financial Services Limited (LASF) for the nine months ended December 31, 2023, reported a 3% decrease in Trading Income totaling $1.60 billion compared to $1.66 billion in the corresponding period last year. Trading Income for the third quarter experienced a 2% decrease to close at $525.17 million compared to $537.76 million for the comparable quarter of 2022.

Other Income amounted to $102.83 million (2022: $97.27 million), this represents an increase of 6% year over year.

Admin & other expenses increased by 1% to close at $927.52 million (2022: $919.57 million), while Selling and promotional costs increased by 21% from $463.39 million in 2022 to $560.00 million in the period under review. As a result, operating expenses for the nine months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $1.49 billion, an 8% increase relative to $1.38 billion reported in 2022.

Profit from Operations for the nine months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $220.23 million, a 42% decrease relative to $376.64 million reported in 2022. Profit from Operations for the third quarter amounted to $81.40 million (2022: $88.85 million). Finance Costs totalled $63.23 million, a 24% decrease from the corresponding period last year. (2022: $83.47 million).

Profit Before Taxation for the nine months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $157.01 million, a 46% decrease relative to $293.17 million reported in 2022. Profit Before Taxation for the third quarter amounted to $61.07 million (2022: $60.10 million).

Taxation for the nine months declined by 39%, valuing $64.69 million (2022: $105.81 million). Net Profit for the nine months amounted to $92.32 million, a 51% decrease from the $187.36 million reported in 2022. For the third quarter, Net Profit was $36.31 million (2022: $30.61 million).

Consequently, Earnings Per Share for the nine months amounted to $0.07 (2022: EPS: $0.15), while Earnings Per Share for the quarter totaled $0.03 (2022: EPS: $0.02). The twelve-month trailing EPS was $0.09, and the number of shares used in these calculations was 1,280,227,726.

Notably, LASF’s stock price closed the trading period on February 9, 2024, at a price of $2.05 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 22.07x.

Balance Sheet Highlights

The company’s assets totalled $4.00 billion (2022: $4.65 billion). This resulted from a 62% decline in ‘Short term deposits’ closing at $297.32 million.

Shareholder’s equity was $2.20 billion (2022: $2.09 billion), representing a book value per share of $1.72 (2022: $1.63).

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