An impairment charge on its investments in the Barbados’ Arawak Cement Company, hits Trinidad Cement with a $153 million charge.
The impairment was not the only hit to profits for the year, write down of deferred tax assets hit results with $86 million, plunging the group for the full year to December, into a loss of $211 million compared with profit of $67.3 million in the prior year. The company in its report to shareholders just released states, “as a result of deteriorating market conditions the Group has impaired its investment in Arawak”.
Excluding the impairment and tax asset adjustments, the group would have reported a loss of $19 million before taxation compared with a loss of $9.7 million in 2013 December quarter and a profit of $58 million before tax compare to $39 million in 2013 for the full year.
Group revenues reached $2.1 billion, an increase of $172.5 million or 9.0 percent compared to the year 2013. Management reported that “this improvement was driven by growth in the domestic cement markets in Trinidad and Jamaica, improved concrete sales volume of 14.6 percent, and by price increases which were implemented in Trinidad, Jamaica and Guyana. Additionally, in Jamaica, CCCL was able to supply 155.4k tonnes of clinker (36.6k tonnes in 2013) to Venezuela.”
“The Company has commenced negotiations with the lenders and at the date of approval of the financial statements by the Board of Directors of the Company, the TCL Group and the majority of the lenders had reached agreement in principle on features of the loan restructuring and its key terms. In addition the Board has embarked upon a comprehensive financial and operational review of the TCL Group, which is in progress, and an overall restructuring plan for the TCL Group which seeks to secure the long-term viability of the Company is being implemented. This Plan includes the completion of the loan restructuring with the lenders, settlement of all back-pay payments to employees in Trinidad and Tobago and the injection of equity capital from the shareholders. This overall restructuring is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2015,” the management in their reported stated.
The company rights issue which is to be priced at TT$2.90 per share is to commence on March 5 for shareholders on record as of the March 3. The stock traded at $2.50 on Monday quite some way off the $2.90 rights price.
Arawak $153m impairment hits TCL
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[…] Trinidad Cement posted strong first quarter results for 2015 with profit after tax rising sharply to $42.5 million versus just $13 million the year before, from revenues of $515 million. Revenues were just slightly better than the $513 million generated in 2014. Group revenue increased, due mainly to cement price increases implemented during 2014 and 11,100 tonnes increase in clinker sales volume. Cement sales volume declined by 4 percent, Management stated in their release of the results to the stock exchanges on which it is listed in Trinidad and Jamaica. Vastly improved results in Jamaica, was one of the major contributor to the improvement. During the quarter interest cost rose to $56.4 million, compared with $50.8 million but depreciation fell from $31.5 million to $27.7 million incurred in 2014. Taxation charge however, increased from $4 million to $10.4 million. The company had effectively defaulted on its loans but that has been remedied with the execution of the restructured debt agreements. The loans have now been re-classified from short term to long term, thus improving the working capital from a deficit of $1.5 billion at December 31, 2014, to a surplus of $650 million at March. The company’s rights issue was successfully concluded in March, with 124.9 million shares issued to raise $361.5 million. In addition, restructured debt agreements with lenders came into effect as at the end of March, the main elements of which include: Interest rate savings of 2 percent reduction; forgiveness of the default moratorium interest from September 30, 2014 and a discount offered by the financiers if the loan is repaid in 90 days. Funds generated from operation based on the results and the rights issue resulting in net cash balance at the end of March of $548.3 million. The stock which was elevated to BUY RATED in 2013 continues to hold that status as earnings for the full years heads towards 60 cents per share. […]
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