The half-year profits of Goddard Enterprises Limited (GEL) are down significantly, and the shareholders are feeling it in their dividend cheques which have fallen by almost 35 per cent.
This was revealed in the latest consolidated financial highlights of the Barbados-based regional conglomerate, for the six months period ending March 31.
According to the recently published financials, profit from operations was down by almost 65 per cent, falling from $35.05 million for the comparable period last year, to $12.36 million for the first six-months this financial year.
Net income for the period fell by 58.4 per cent, down from $30.66 million in 2020 to $12.76 million for the review period this year. Importantly, earnings per share for investors were down by 34.5 per cent, falling from 8.7 cents per share last year to 5.7 cents per share this year.
In a lengthy Board Review statement signed by chairman Charles Herbert and chief executive officer Anthony Ali, it was noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the group’s operations and bottom line.
“The impact of COVID-19 on [GEL] started in the third quarter of the last financial year. This resulted in the Group incurring a net loss of $26.5 million and a loss per share of 5.6 cents during the last two quarters of financial year 2020.
The most significant impact was on our Catering and Ground Handling Division and to a lesser extent on the smaller Auto Division, where sales collapsed and have not yet shown significant signs of recovery,” the board detailed.
According to the senior directors, those two divisions were also impacted by high restructuring costs. They noted that during the first quarter of this current financial year, there was an improvement, with GEL’s earned net income
of $12.2 million.
However, Ali and Herbert said things started to deteriorate again in the second quarter. “With most countries experiencing contractions in their economies, high unemployment levels, renewed lockdowns, and the imposition of international travel restrictions across Europe and Canada, the Group recorded $368.1m in its top line for the first six months,” they explained.
“Despite seeing a marginal increase in business during this period after the collapse in the second half of the prior year, our Catering and Ground Handling Division where we have a 51 per cent shareholding, was negatively impacted by low passenger loads and curtailment of travel worldwide.
The cost reduction measures undertaken in the prior year and our continued efforts on diversification however are bearing fruit,” the directors informed shareholders.
Regarding the outlook, the directors offered a tentative forecast, with much hinging on vaccinations, containing the spread of COVID-19 in GEL’s various markets, and re-emergence of mass tourism in the region.
“The continuation of the roll-out of the vaccinations is expected to have a favourable impact on worldwide travel and recovery of global economies. However, there is still
uncertainty as to the pace of the recovery.
“The group expects the performance during the next six months to be better than that of the second half of the prior year, as there were $25.1 million in pre-tax one-off adjustments at the end of the last year and we anticipate a gradual increase in passenger loads and increased flights.
“The recent eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in St Vincent will have mixed fortunes for our businesses but we remain hopeful of a future recovery for all our businesses negatively impacted by current events.”
(IMC1)
