Impairment charge leads to loss at Sri Lanka Guardian Capital Partners

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Guardian Capital Partners has attributed its loss in the first half of this year to impairment charges arising from alleged fraud at an investee firm, Swiss Institute for Service Industry Development (Pvt) Ltd.

The company, part of the Carson Cumberbatch group, reported a loss of Rs29.9 million in the six months to September 2017, compared with a Rs16 million net profit the year before.

For the September 2017 quarter, Guardian Capital Partners (GCP) said net profit was almost Rs7 million, down 13% from a year ago.

Quarterly earnings per share were 27 cents, down from 31 cents the previous year. The share last traded at Rs33.10.

For the six months to September 2017, it reported a loss per share of Rs1.16 compared with EPS of 61 cents the year before.

“The loss recorded was primarily due to an impairment of Rs. 42.1 million made against the investment in Swiss Institute for Service Industry Development (Pvt) Ltd, as reported in Q1, due to an alleged misappropriation of funds in the said investee company,” a managers’ review accompanying the accounts said.

It has said GCP and the other co-investors of the investee company had filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department about alleged misappropriation of funds by the Managing Director and Promoter of the investee company against whom legal proceedings have been initiated by the CID in the Magistrates Court of Colombo.

Sri Lanka's LVL Energy seeks Rs1.2bn from IPO

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's LVL Energy Fund has been given the go ahead by the Colombo Stock Exchange to offer 120 million shares at 10 rupees to raise 1.2 billion rupees from an initial public offer.

Subscriptions will open on December 14, 2017.

LVL Energy Fund is a unit of publicly trade Lanka Ventures Plc.

It has investments in mini hydro plants.

Sri Lanka's LOLC to list 5 & 2-year senior bonds

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's Lanka Orix Leasing Company Ltd, is listing 2.7 billion rupees of bonds in 5 and 2 year tenors, which had been issued on July 31.

The 5-year debentures with a coupon on 13.00 percent paid every six months, (effective rate 13.42 percent) will mature in 2022.

The 2-year bond with a coupon on 12.65 percent, (effective rate 13.05 percent), matures in 2019.

The bonds have an [SL] A (stable) by ICRA Lanka Limited.

Sri Lanka Telecom Sept net profit down 60-pct, sales flat

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) said net profit fell 60.4% to Rs730 million in the September 2017 quarter from a year ago as sales remained flat while costs rose sharply.

Quarterly earnings per share fell to 40 cents from Rs1.02 the previous year, according to interim accounts filed with the stock exchange. The stock was last traded at Rs29.30.

September 2017 quarter sales were flat at Rs19 billion while operating costs rose and depreciation and amortisation costs were sharply higher, the accounts showed. Other income was lower.

In the nine months to September 2017, pre-tax profit from fixed ICT operations fell sharply to Rs994 million from Rs2.4 billion while mobile phone unit profit also fell to Rs3 billion from Rs3.7 billion.

EPS fell to Rs1.79 in the nine months to September 2017 from the previous year’s Rs2.59 with net profit down 32% to Rs3.2 billion from Rs4.7 billion over the period.