Jamaican-traded energy company, CAC 2000 Limited suffered a first-quarter loss of J$32.76 million, experiencing a dismal period.

The losses made during the January 2022 quarter erases the pre-tax profit of J$7.94 million in the prior comparable period in 2021. CAC 2000 paid no taxes for 2021 or the last quarter.

Loss-per-share for the quarter amounted to $0.25 compared to an earning per share of J$0.06 in 2021. Notably, CAC’s stock price closed the trading period on April 22, 2022, at a price of $7.40.

Revenues for the quarter declined by 12 per cent to close at $222.24 million, down from the J$253.33 million posted in 2021. Cost of sales increased by seven per cent to J$150.33 million (2021: $140.06 million) for the period under review.

Consequently, gross profit for the period also fell to J$71.91 million (2021: J$113.27 million), reflecting a 37 per cent decrease year-over-year.

Marginal decline in expenses

The company reported a marginal one per cent decrease in total expenses to J$95.90 million (2021: J$96.65 million). This was due largely to a 20 per cent fall in selling and distribution expenses to J$3.81 million (2021: J$4.74 million).

CAC 2000 also recorded other Losses of J$3.07 million relative to losses of J$1.53 million booked for the same quarter of 2021.CAC 2000 also recorded a loss before taxation and finance cost rose to J$24.00 million (2021: J$16.62 million).

Net finance costs went up for the period in review to J$8.77 million (2021: J$8.69 million). As at January 31, 2021, CAC 2000 reported total assets of J$1.37 billion, a 25 per cent increase when compared to J$1.10 billion a year ago.

This was resulting from an increase in ‘Inventories’ and ‘Cash & Bank Deposits’ which closed at J$496.02 million (2021: J$330.37 million) and J$103.71 (2021: J$88.28 million), respectively. ‘Right of Use Assets’ also contributed to the increase growing from J$2.31 million in 2021 to J$73.88 million.

Total shareholders’ equity as at January 31, 2021 was J$395.39 million compared to J$396.28 million a year ago. This resulted in a book value per share of J$3.06 compared to J$3.07 in 2021.