Leading conglomerate Aitken Spence PLC’s financial results released to the Colombo Stock Exchange revealed quarterly revenue increasing year-on-year(YoY) to Rs. 12.41 billion from Rs. 12.28 billion while revenue for the six months was Rs. 22.98 billion. The Group also recorded an improved net assets per share value of Rs. 112.30.
Profits-before-tax (PBT) for the six months ended September 30, was Rs. 1.45 bn while the quarterly PBT was recorded as Rs. 971 million, both recording decreases over the previous year. After discounting the exceptional gain on disposal of Hotel Hilltop Kandy in September 2017, the Group has recorded a PBT growth of 19% year on year in the second quarter and registered a significant improvement over the performance of the first quarter of the current financial year.
The tourism sector reported a decrease inprofits-before-tax YoY. This was mainly owing to the significant gain from divesting in Hotel Hill Top that amounted toRs. 307.6 million Last year. The devaluation of the rupee had a negative impact on the translation adjustment of foreign currency loans taken by the tourism sector, which also witnessed a drop in the contribution from Meedhuparu resort in Maldives due to its investment made in the new resort Aarah. However, the revenue of the tourism sector was up 8.4% YoY to Rs. 12.06 billion from Rs. 11.12 billion.
There were significant improvements in the maritime & logistics and services sectors. The turnaround of cargo sector and improved performance of the ship agency operation resulted in an increase in profit-before-tax for themaritime & logistics sector.
The sector revenue increased by 10.2% to Rs. 5.62 billion from Rs. 5.10 billion. The quarterly profit-after-tax of the sector increased by 24.9 percent to Rs. 711 million from Rs. 569 million, over the previous year.
Capital expenditure incurred on the construction of Aarah resort in the Maldives and the waste-to-energy power plantin the north of Colombo resulted in an increase in property plant and equipment of the Group by approximately Rs 3.5 billion.
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