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Friday, 15 August 2014 00:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dunamis Capital PLC has made a dynamic start to FY 2014-15, growing its first quarter bottom line more than five-fold over that of the first quarter of the previous year.
The holding company of First Capital, Kelsey Homes and Premier Synthetic Leather has reported profit after tax of Rs. 135.6 million for the three months ending 30 June 2014, from Rs. 24.7 million in the first quarter of 2013-14.
Revenue grew by 29.7% to Rs. 651.6 million and cost of sales by 9.6% to Rs. 408.8 million, the Group said in a filing with the Colombo Stock Exchange.
Dunamis converted a loss of Rs. 6 million on fair value of investments held for trading in the first quarter of the previous year to a gain of Rs. 26.7 million this year, and also reported a gain of Rs. 25.3 million on fair value of derivative financial instruments in the three months reviewed.
Profit before tax improved by 156% to Rs. 145.5 million. Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company grew from Rs. 18.3 million a year earlier to Rs. 103.8 million for the quarter under review.
Commenting on the Group’s performance, Dunamis Capital’s Managing Director Manjula Mathews said profits of its financial services unit, First Capital Holdings PLC were Rs. 218 million compared to Rs. 66 million in the previous year, due to the opportunities afforded by the continued decline in interest rates. The First Capital group had recorded a profit after tax of Rs. 400 million for July 2014, taking its four month profit to Rs. 620 million, she said.
Kelsey Developments PLC, the Property Development unit of the group also improved performance during the quarter with consolidated revenue of Rs. 88.4 million as against Rs. 36.6 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
During the quarter under review, Kelsey launched two large scale projects, ‘Templers Square’ and ‘Riverfront’, the former now half sold and the latter sold out within a week of its launch. The 100-house project at Templers Road, Mount Lavinia launched in March 2014 has had a favourable response and it is expected that a profit of Rs. 250 million will be realised by Kelsey over the next two financial years, Mathews said.
Premier Synthetic Leather Manufacturers Ltd. commenced commercial operations during June 2014 and reported an operating loss of Rs. 22.4 million for the period under review. “We expect the company to break even before the end of the financial year and be a strong contributor to group profits during the coming years,” she said.
In July 2014 Dunamis PLC raised Rs. 1 billion in long term debt through a listed issue of five-year Debentures.
Mathews said the group is well-positioned to generate consistent profits, and expects its financial services arm to be the main contributor to profits during the financial year. “We expect our property development arm to make a significant contribution to the Group profits during the next financial year,” she added.
