JOHN HOLT PLC: UNLIKE BOLT

Remember Usain Bolt, the champion sprinter? Well, John Holt PLC was unlike Bolt in the financial year to September 2015 because it breasted in reverse gear into loss league.
According to the brief on the audited accounts released to the stock market recently, the reverse speed would have been higher but for help from subsidiaries.
Alone, John Holt the company had landed in gross operating loss of N80m even before finance charges but the group still cruised on with N60m profit.
However, even though finance expenses eased by 7.6% to N231m from N250m in 2014, a final loss of N171m before tax was reported eventually by the group compared to N427m profit the previous year
The company was more responsible for this as its own loss before tax stood at N311m down 216.9% on the N266m profit in 2014.
The only area the company did better than the group was in cost control. For example, the distribution cost of the company dropped by 30.4% to N311m from N447m compared to only 20.2% decrease by the group to N368m from N461m.
The same with administration expenses which dropped by 30.6% to N577m from N831m for the company compared to 20.3% decline to N682m from N855m for the group.
This could not neutralise the race downwards from the level of total revenue. For the company total income went down 14.6% to N3101m as core revenue dropped by 14.1% to N2379m and other operating income decreased by 16.5% to N722m.
The situation was a bit better for the group because of higher contributions from subsidiaries. Group total income stood at N3408m, down 11.3% on 2014's N3842m. Operating income for the group declined only by 4.28% to N983m from N1027m previously.
However, the real back breaker for John Holt was the N528m exchange loss recorded within the year without any such loss in 2014 for both group and the company..
In the end, group loss at N171m was N5.02 on each N100 income almost 50% less than the N10 on each N100 income reported by the company.
However, in terms of liquidity situation the year still had challenges but it was less depressing as group working capital deficit came to N1213m, 31% better than N1582 deficit by September 2014.
SO:
* For John Holt the two things to keep an eye on in 2016 are revenue and exchange loss since macro economic indicators still point downwards
* Not forgetting, of course, getting subsidiaries to be more cost conscious while retaining revenue drive.

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