Resilience in business lines in spite of challenging and competitive market conditions

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Lasco Financial Services has exhibited much resilience during the half-year period, posting a 17 per cent increase in net profit.

Net profit rose by J$23.2 million, closing the six-month period ended September 30, 2022 at $156.8 million, up from the J$133.59 million posted the same period last year. This improvement is due mainly to the planned decrease in finance cost, which generated savings of J$38.6 million.

Net profit for the September quarter amounted to J$73.97 million, up from the J$58.61 million booked in 2021. Consolidated transactions during the half-year period generated J$1.18 billion in revenues, which is J$42.9 million over 2021, representing a 3.7 per cent increase.

Managing Director Jacinth Hall-Tracey said: “This reflects a strong contribution from the company’s core services with increasing input from the new services.”

Hall-Tracey noted that for the half year, April to September 2022, “we continue to see the resilience in our business lines in spite of the challenging and competitive market conditions”.

She promised that, in the coming periods, Lasco Financial Services will continue to extract opportunities from its diversified business lines and build on the new revenue streams to provide continuous value for its valued shareholders.

Decline in cash balance

The company retains high cash balances as the nature of its transactions require the finance company to operate with high cash volumes. However, there was however a slight decline in cash balances when compared with the corresponding period.

Cash and cash equivalents declined by 19 per cent to $721.93 million, up from J$896.51 million in 2021. 

Hall-Tracey explained that, “one notable contribution to the decline in cash is the increase in loan disbursements as we make a push to expand our portfolio and market share”.

Total assets increased marginally year over year by J$62.6 million or 1.4 per cent to close at J$4.43 billion. This increase was largely due to a nine per cent increase in ‘Receivables’ which closed at $1.53 billion (2021: $1.4 billion), tempered by the 19 per cent decline in cash and cash equivalents.

During the second quarter, the financial outfit extended its LASCO Gold Visa debit card pilot to the general public, offering the service through its remittance agent network and via the LASCO Gold Mobile app (in the Google Playstore). The company says it is pleased with customer response so far and expect to increase market activity over the next two quarters to ensure that we maximize on the opportunities.

Total expenses increased by five per cent, from J$856.8 million to J$900.1 million. Administrative expenses increased in line with expansion of services and growth in staff, whereas selling and promotional expenses increased in line with additional market activity for the period.

Speaking to the unbanked

In reference to the unbanked, the Lasco Financial Services MD said: “Unbanked customers can benefit greatly from the LASCO Gold Visa debit card (prepaid) as they will be able to load their cards with funds and conduct transactions seamlessly at points of sales and online, including cross border.

This year LASCO Financial Services celebrates 18 years of service and 12 years on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.