March 17, 2022

The Limners and Bards Limited (LAB), for the first quarter ended January 31, 2022, reported a 24% increase in operating revenues to $443.48 million, up from $356.26 million booked in 2021. Management noted the increase was due to, “core business, media placement (up $93.2 million or 62.2%) and advertising agency (up $3.6 million or 6.4%). Production was down $9.6 million or 6.4%.”

Cost of operating revenue rose by 25% for the period to $300.60 million (2021: $241.09 million). Consequently, gross profit for the period rose by 24% closing at $142.88 million compared to $115.18 million for the same period last year.

The Company reported a 42% increase in administration expenses to $75.01 million (2021: $52.67 million) due to “staff costs, repairs and maintenance of production equipment and depreciation and amortization costs.” as per LAB. Also, selling and distribution costs for the quarter totaled $390,747 compared to $504,095 for the previous period. Therefore, total operating expenses amounted to $75.40 million, a 42% increase from the previous period which was $53.17 million. However, profit before net finance cost and taxation rose by 9% to $67.47 million (2021: $62.01 million).

Net finance cost amounted to $1.68 million versus a net finance income of $4.93 billion booked in 2021. This was as a result of a reduction in finance income to $901,583 compared to $7.04 million for the same quarter ended January 2021. Finance cost for the three months closed at $2.58 million (2021: $2.11 million).

The Company reports a loss in value of investment classified as FVTPL of $21,490, relative to a gain of $80,586 booked in 2021 corresponding quarter.

Profit before taxation amounted to $65.78 million (2021: $67.02 million). Tax credit of $445,077 was booked for the period (2021: nil), as such net profit for the first quarter declined by 1% to $66.22 million (2021: $67.02 million), “mainly due to an increase in staff cost, reduction in finance income and a $1.3 million loss reported by our subsidiary, Scope Caribbean,” as per LAB.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the first quarter amounted to $0.070 (2021: $0.071). The trailing twelve month earnings per share amounted to $0.16. The number of shares used in our calculations is 945,690,252 units. Notably, LAB’s stock price closed the trading period on March 17, 2022 at a price of $3.37 with a corresponding P/E of 20.59 times.

Balance Sheet Highlights: 

As at January 31, 2022, the Company reported total assets of $934.03 million, a 37% increase when compared to the $680.76 million reported a year ago. This was as a result of increases in ‘Accounts Receivable’ and ‘Cash and Cash equivalents’ which closed at $359.90 million (2021: $198.33 million) and $400.29 million (2021: $342.25 million), respectively.

Shareholders’ Equity as at January 31, 2022 was $533.43 million compared to $461.27 million a year ago. This resulted in a book value per share of $0.56 compared to $0.49 in 2021.

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