February 14, 2020

Productive Business Solutions Limited (PBS) for the year ending December 31, 2019, reported an increase in revenues from US$179.29 million in 2018 to US$180.55 million in 2019, an 1% increase. For the quarter, revenues decreased 11% to total US$48.35 million relative to US$54.06 million the prior quarter.

Direct expenses decreased 5% to close the period at US$98.53 million when compared to US$104.23 million for the same period of 2018. As such, gross profit for the year increased 9% to US$82.02 million (2018: US$75.07 million). Gross profit for the quarter amounted to $23.94 million (2018: $21.94 million).

Other income declined 70% to close at US$419,000 relative to US$1.40 million in 2018.

Selling, general and administrative expenses amounted to US$70.05 million (2018: US$64.70 million), a 8% increase. As such, operating profit increased 5% for the period to total US$12.39 million relative to the US$11.76 million in 2018. Operating profit for the quarter totalled US$4.71 million, a 29% decrease on the US$6.60 million reported in 2018.

Finance costs decreased to total US$7.85 million relative to US$9.15 million in 2018. Management noted that this was, “primarily due to the refinancing of our bond”. As such, profit before taxation amounted to US$4.54 million, 74% increase on US$2.61 million reported in 2018.

After taxation of US$2.18 million (2018: US$2.48 million) the company reported a net profit of US$2.36 million, an increase from US$134,000 in 2018. Net profit for the quarter amounted to US$2.28 million, a 54% increase on the US$1.48 million reported in the corresponding quarter of 2018. Total Comprehensive income for the period attributable to shareholders was US$2.49 million relative to the loss of US$2.32 million reported the prior year. Management noted, “Profitability increased significantly year over year driven by margin improvements as a result  of increased sales of higher end service oriented products”.

For the period the company reported earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.02 (LPS 2018: US$0.02). The earnings per share for the quarter amounted to US$0.020 (EPS 2018: US$0.006). The total number of shares employed in our calculations amounted to 123,272,727 units. The stock price closed trading on February 13, 2020 at US$0.75.

Management noted that, “In 2020 we look forward to building on our base of high-quality recurring revenues by executing on several new projects across our printing, information technology, professional services, networking and advanced services business lines”.

Balance Sheet at a glance:

As at December 31, 2019, PBS had total assets totalling US$174.59 million (2018: US$167.04 million) which represents a marginal increase of 5%. This movement was mainly attributed to a 13% and 54% growth in ‘Property, Plant, and Equipment’ and ‘Current portion of lease receivables’ respectively to US$25.58 million (2018: US$22.66 million) and US$3.16 million (2018: US$2.05 million), respectively.

Shareholders Equity amounted to US$35.98 million (2018: US$35.08 million) with a book value per share of US$0.292 (2018: US$0.285)

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