MaltaPost plc - Interim Results

On 10 May, MaltaPost plc published its interim results covering the six months ended 31 March 2016.

Performance Overview

During the period under review, the postal operator registered a 5.1% increase in revenues to a record of €14.0 million (H1 2014/5: €13.3 million), largely reflecting the volume growth in international mail services, registered mail as well as parcels and packets. Financial services, retail operations and other ancillary services also contributed to this growth. The growth in these areas contributed towards mitigating the adverse effect of the decreasing letter mail volumes.

Meanwhile, net operating expenses (comprising staff costs, operational expenses, depreciation and amortisation) surged by 14.1% to €12.4 million (H1 2014/5: €10.9 million) reflecting costs related to increased activity, higher staff costs and the non-recurrence of one-off write-backs of certain operational expenses recorded in the corresponding period last year.

As a result, the Company reported a significant reduction in operating profits to €1.58 million compared to €2.44 million in the first half of the previous financial year. Excluding the depreciation and amortisation charge, MaltaPost’s EBITDA figure amounted to €2.0 million, representing an 29.9% decline over the previous comparable period.

After accounting for net finance income which decreased by 9.1% to just €0.08 million, the Company’s pre-tax profit dropped by 34.5% to €1.66 million (H1 2014/5: €2.53 million). Similarly, after deducting a tax charge of €0.55 million, MaltaPost posted a net profit for the first six months of the current financial year ending 30 September 2016 of €1.11 million compared to €1.64 million in the previous comparable period. This translates into an earnings per share of €0.0304 (H1 2014/5: €0.0461).

The Statement of Financial Position shows a 3.2% growth in total assets since the end of the previous financial year on 30 September 2015 to €36.2 million which is largely attributable to the 7.5% increase in trade and other receivables to €9.12 million. Similarly, during the six months under review, total liabilities grew by 1.3% to €14.9 million. MaltaPost remains debt free. Overall, the total equity of the Company grew by 7.9% to €21.3 million reflecting the profit registered during the period under review as well as the scrip dividend issue of January 2016. This translates into a net asset value per share of €0.5761 (September 2015: €0.5615).

Outlook

Looking ahead, the Directors noted that the Company will maintain its commitment to pursue growth opportunities in other key business and consumer areas (namely logistics operations) to offset the continuing decline in letter mail volumes. In this respect, following a public call for tenders, MaltaPost was awarded a contract to provide document management services which is expected to contribute healthily to its revenue diversification efforts.

The Company remains conscious of its role as the national Universal Service provider, with the onerous obligations it brings, and seeks to fulfil these in a commercially viable manner. Indeed, MaltaPost opened a new branch in SmartCity last December and shall also be opening two further outlets before the end of this financial year. The Malta Postal Museum is also scheduled to be opened during this financial year.

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MaltaPost plc – Interim Financial Statements for the six months ended 31 March 2016.