Date: August 07, 2019
Lasco Distributors Limited (LASD), for the three months ended June 30, 2019, posted a marginal increase in revenue to $4.34 billion, up from $4.28 billion in the corresponding period in 2018.
Cost of sales amounted to $3.47 billion, up 2% on the $3.41 billion reported in the prior comparable period. Consequently, gross profit recorded a marginal decrease year over year, closing at $864.70 million compared to the $871.44 million generated for the same period in the prior year.
Other operating income rose by 23% to end the three months at $52.66 million relative to $42.70 million in the corresponding period last year.
Operating expenses of $724.63 million were booked for the period, a growth of 10% on $660.40 million recorded for the comparable period of 2018.
Operating profit fell by 24% to close at $192.73 million for the period under review (2018: $253.74 million) while Finance cost totalled $5.66 million (2018: $172,000)
Pre-tax profit amounted to $187.07 million, a 26% decrease from the $253.57 million reported in the previous year.
Net profit for the period closed at $163.91 million (2018: $233.64 million), a 30% decline year over year following taxation of $23.16 million (2018: $19.93 million). LASD stated that, “the decline is heavily attributable to one off restructuring expenses and legal fees associated with ongoing matters including Pfizer case, we have invested significantly in the continued increase of fleet resources to better reach and serve our smaller retailers nationally. We expect the negative impact of these mostly one-off expenses on profit to be diminished going into the following quarters of the year as we continue to drive top line revenue above last year and effectively implement our long-term expense management strategies to continuously improve profits.”
Earnings per share for the three months ended June 2019, totalled $0.05 versus $0.07 for the corresponding period in 2018. The trailing twelve months EPS is $0.15. The total amount of shares outstanding used for this calculation was 3,507,359,835 units. Notably, LASD’s closed the trading period on August 07, 2019, at $3.45.
Balance sheet at a glance:
As at June 30, 2019, ‘Total Assets’ amounted to $8.60 billion, 1% more than last year’s $8.49 billion. This increase was due to an increase in ‘Inventories’ and ‘Property, plant and equipment’ which closed at $2.70 billion (2018: $2.28 billion) and $1.89 billion (2018: $1.47 billion). However, the increase was tempered by the reduction in ‘Cash and cash equivalent’ which amounted to $956.10 million (2018: $1.33 billion).
Shareholders’ equity amounted to $5.36 billion as at June 2019 (2018: $4.81 billion), reflecting a 11% increase. This translated in a book value per share of $1.53 (2018: $1.37).
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