Aitken Spence PLC reported a drop of 29.3 per cent pre-tax profit from Rs. 678 million to Rs. 480 million, over the previous year.
The Company’s financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2018 reported the revenue for the first quarter decreasing by 9.2 per cent from Rs. 11.6 billion to Rs. 10.6 billion.Despite the impact of the exchange rates and increase in costs, revenue from the tourism sector remained strong as in the previous year rising by 4.7 percent to Rs. 4.9 billion. The revenue increased across Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India markets while Oman reported a reduction.
However, the tourism sector reported a loss of Rs. 262 million for the quarter, which is an increase from Rs. 150 million, over the previous year. Lower occupancy in the Maldivian resorts and a lack of significant improvement in occupancy levels in Sri Lankan hotels contributed towards the losses. India performance improved, with better occupancy and banquet sales at Turyaa Chennai. Performance from Aitken Spence Travels during the quarter remained steady over the corresponding period last year.
Maritime & logistics and services sectors recorded increments. The maritime and logistics sector revenue increased by 12 per cent from Rs.1.9 billion to Rs.2.2 billion, driven by an improved contribution from the freight, courier and shipping agency businesses. The quarterly profit-before-tax of the maritime and logistics sector increased by 17.4 per cent to Rs. 436 million, over the previous year.
The first quarter services sector revenue increased by 32 per cent from Rs.387 million to Rs. 513 million, while profit-before-tax rose by 1.8 per cent to Rs. 82 million over the previous year, driven mainly by property and elevators segments. Major expenses were incurred on the construction of Heritance Aarah resort, in the Maldives and the 10 MW waste-to-energy power plant in north of Colombo. The construction of Heritance Aarah is expected to open in the Maldives by the end of 2018. Heritance Aarah will be the first resort outside Sri Lanka to be branded as ‘Heritance’. The landmark waste-to-energy project is expected help solve both the waste disposal and energy supply challenges in the country at present. The project would be equipped to convert municipal solid waste to electricity, aimed at greatly relieving the Colombo City of its waste disposal burden.
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