Aitken Spence Sept. net down 17% to Rs.484mn

The modest performance of the tourism segment despite higher tourist arrivals weighed in on Aitken Spence PLC’s bottom line despite the steady performance of the group’s key maritime and logistics and service sectors for the period ended September 30, 2018 (2Q 19). 

The group’s net profits fell by 17.2 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs. 483.6 million during the quarter under review. 

Net profit for the first half (1H19) also fell 26 percent YoY to Rs.694.32 million. The operating profits of the group during the quarter under review also saw a decline of almost 12 percent YoY to Rs. 1.14 billion as other operating incomes declined to Rs. 139.9 million.

The revenue for the quarter increased by a marginal 1.1 percent YoY to Rs.12.4 billion.

The group reported earnings per share of Rs.1.19 in the second quarter compared to Rs.1.44 a year earlier. 

Aitken Spence is the second largest leisure sector operator in Sri Lanka after John Keells, and also has a sizable portfolio of resorts in Maldives. 

During the first six months of the financial year, the leisure segment recorded an operating loss of Rs.95 million compared to the operating profit of Rs 550.3 million a year earlier, while the losses expanded sharply to Rs. 632.5 million. 

“This was mainly owing to the significant gain from divesting Hotel Hill Top that amounted to Rs. 307.6 million last year,” Aitken Spence stated in an earnings release.
The group last year divested its interest in Hotel Hilltop, a 73-room hotel situated in Kandy for Rs.740 million, reasoning that the property’s value proposition had long been an unsuitable for the group’s hotel portfolio. 

“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,” the earnings release noted.

Aitken Spence is expected to launch Heritance Aarah in Maldives in February 2019, the first resort outside Sri Lanka to be launched under the brand of ‘Heritance’.
The group stated in the earnings release that the capital expenditure incurred on the construction of Aarah resort in Maldives and the waste-to-energy power plant in the north of Colombo resulted in an increase in property plant and equipment of the group by approximately Rs. 3.5 billion.

However, the contribution from strategic investments segment in the first six months, which includes plantations and the thermal power plants to the top line declined to Rs.7.4 billion from Rs 9.9 billion a year earlier. 

The group saw steady performance of its maritime and logistics and services segments during the first half. The maritime sector net profits rose by 24.9 percent to Rs. 711 million in the period under review, while the operating profits climbed to Rs.745.5 million compared to Rs. 607.3 million a year earlier. 

“The turnaround of the cargo sector and improved performance of the ship agency operation resulted in an increase in profit-before-tax for the maritime and logistics sector,” the earnings release said.

The service sector profits of the group rose by 38.5 percent YoY to Rs. 142 .2 million during the first six months of the financial year.

The billionaire businessman, Harry Jayawardena-controlled Melstacorp Limited, Rubicond Enterprises Limited and other related parties collectively held over 67 percent of Aitken Spence as at September 30, 2018, while the Employees’ Provident Fund held 5.07 percent stake being the third largest shareholder.