Group records after-tax profit

AS many as 7800 customers of Vision Investments Ltd had filed for hardship claims.

Courts Fiji Ltd CEO P L Munasinghe shared these statistics at the Vision Investments Ltd annual general meeting on September 25.

“Due to COVID-19, there were many unemployment and financial hardships faced and at the moment, we have 77,000 to 78,000 customers in our books, of which 7800 have filed for hardship claims where total owing by all of them is close to 11 billion dollars,” he said.

The meeting highlighted the company recorded an after tax profit of $15.7 million on revenue of $181.6 million, despite the impact of COVID-19.

Vision Investments Ltd chairman Dilip

Khatri said he was pleased with the operating results despite the company recording provisions for bad debts.

“COVID-19 has significantly impacted the Fiji economy and we had to consider this post balance sheet development, as required under the accounting standards and consequently, additional provisions were made in the accounts for bad debts,” he said.

Mr Khatri stated they had made a trading loss where their PNG subsidiary was struggling to continue in the current difficult trading environment.

“We have made another trading loss, although less than the previous year.

“This PNG business is important to us as it helps us to maintain some very important agencies and we also believe that it is strategically important to maintain a trading presence in one of the largest economies in the region.”

He said the company aimed to restructure the PNG business in 2021 to achieve a positive trading result in the short term.

“This will enable the business to rebound when the PNG economy picks up.”

The board of directors of the company recommended not to declare a final dividend for the current year as a precaution to preserve cash.

“The company declared an interim dividend of four cents per share in November, 2019, however, this time the directors are hopeful that after assessment of the first six months operating results, we are positive that we would be able to consider declaring an interim dividend in November 2020, consistent with past practice.”