Malita Investments plc - Interim Results

On 10 August 2018, Malita Investments plc published its condensed interim financial statements covering the six-month period ended 30 June 2018.

Performance Overview

During the first half of 2018, Malita registered an 11% increase in revenues to €3.91 million (H1 2017: €3.53 million), mostly related to the upward revision in the lease agreement pertaining to the Parliament Building with effect from 1 June 2017 following completion of additional development works and improvements to the same building last year. In this respect, however, the company also noted that the issuance of the completion certificate related to the Parliament Building is still pending.

On the expenditure side, administrative costs decreased by 12.7% to €0.29 million. The financial statements of Malita were also positively impacted by a positive change in the fair value of investment property amounting to €3.55 million. However, this is much lower than the positive fair value movement of €7.13 million registered in the previous comparable period. As a result, operating profits contracted by just over 30% to €7.17 million when compared to €10.3 million registered in the first six months of 2017.

Net finance costs amounted to €0.65 million, representing a small increase of €0.03 million over the same period last year.

Overall, Malita posted a profit before tax of €6.52 million which is 32.7% lower than the corresponding figure of €9.69 million for the first six months of 2017. On the other hand, the company incurred a much lower tax charge of just €1.02 million compared to €8.01 million last year. The substantial difference in the tax charge is related to the one-time adjustment in the value of the Parliament Building and Open Air Theatre in June last year after the company had changed the method of valuing these two properties to fair value rather than at cost. As a result, post-tax profits stood at €5.5 million compared to €1.68 million in H1 2017.

The condensed Statement of Financial Position as at 30 June 2018 compared to the corresponding figures as at 31 December 2017 shows a 2.9% increase in total assets to €185 million (31 December 2017: €179.9 million), partly reflecting the amount of €2.65 million in development works on various sites related to the Affordable Housing Project. On the other hand, the cash balance dropped to €0.29 million from €1.05 million as at the end of 2017.

Total liabilities also increased to €61.5 million (+4.1%), largely reflecting higher level of borrowings which amounted to €43.1 million as at 30 June 2018 (31 December 2017: €40.2 million). Likewise, total equity grew by 2.3% to €123.5 million. This translates into a net asset value per share of €0.8339 (31 December 2017: €0.8153).

In their commentary, the Directors of Malita explained that the company has ongoing negotiations on a number of projects. Furthermore, the Board of Directors is also currently considering and evaluating other potential projects.

Dividend

The Directors declared an unchanged net interim dividend of €0.00858 per share. This is payable on 7 September 2018 to all shareholders as at close of trading on 21 August 2018.

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Malita Investments plc – Condensed Interim Financial Statements for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018.