Little profit in Q4 for Lasco Financial

Lasco Financial Services reported profit of $191 million or EPS of 15.5 cents for the March 2015 year, an improvement of 8 percent over the $177 million made in 2014. The last quarter was poor with only $10 million in profit, down sharply from $41 million made in 2014, due to a combination of developments.
Revenue for the last quarter hardly grew, ending at $148 million versus $145 million in the 2014 quarter while expenses grew by $28 million due mainly to increased spend on marketing and selling expenses. Jacinth Hall-Tracey, Managing director indicated that the period suffered from squeezed margins on foreign exchange trading and foreign exchange losses in the quarter, resulting from the revaluation of the Jamaican dollar and greater stability of the exchange rate. Loan disbursements slowed as credit rating data used in assessing potential clients resulted in lower loan approvals.
The PE ratio of the stock is 13 based on the last reported earnings, normally the ratio would not be that high. Mayberry’s acquisition of 20 percent of the company’s shares has changed the dynamics and remove some supply from the market.
The company has cash of $500 million and is generating over $200 million per year. If the company can find the formula to ramp up good quality lending successfully, the profit outlook can be transformed considerably with high profit margins for lending. “We are working on a number of initiatives that will help in the transition from lower income in foreign exchange activity” Hall-Tracey said. The area of credit approval is one that they is being revisited as the use of credit rating information is stymying lending. But Hall-Tracey expects profit for this year that ends March 2016 to be higher than for the year just ended, subject to taxes on profit which the company will start bearing at fifty percent of the official tax rate of 25 percent.
The equity capital of Lasco is $812 million and is well below that of its two siblings who have equity in equity of more than $2.4 billion each. The company has done well from the money remittance and cambio operations but it is in the lending that the future growth prospects seems to rest. Hence the connection between Mayberry with the know-how having been exposed at Access Financial. The company has the free capital to increase lending with only $147 million in loans at March.