Caribbean Cement shares traded at $25 after Q 1 results.
Full year 2015 results were a profit after tax of $1.5 million or $1.82 per shares but after accounting for exceptional income and expenses resulting in lower profit than from ongoing operations. Included in the one off cost was redundancy payment of $436 million which h will result in lower payroll cost that should be equivalent to the separation cost in the first year.
Revenues climbed to $3.977 billion from $3.58 billion in the first quarter as domestic sales grew while export declined. Interest cost declined from $65 million in the March 2014 quarter to just $5.6 million in the current quarter. Cost elsewhere fell by $270 million in the quarter to help boost the profit.
Carib Cement paid taxes of $244 million in the quarter according to data in the cash flow but the provision against the quarter’s profit is $118 million. Cement ended up with cash balance at $963 million but invested $203 million of the cash inflows while working capital used up $525 million.
The profit for the quarter brought accumulated losses to $4.9 billion which should be wiped out in 2017 if the current trend of profitability continues.
The stock traded as high as $25 on Friday after results were released.
