Asco warns of loss ai† shocs
CAPE TOWN - Jasco Electronics has warned shareholders it has swung into a headline loss for its half-year to end-December, amid internal and external shocks.
The company expects a headline loss per share from continuing operations of between 6.3c and 6.5c, from earnings of 1.7c previously, it said in a brief update that didn’t go into significant detail.
Jasco, now valued at R44.1 million on the JSE, had raised about R48 million in a rights issue in February 2022, which increased its shares in issue by about 60 per cent.
Jasco provides digital media equipment, components for energy solutions and manufactures electrical plugs, adaptors and extensions, and had swung into a loss in its 2022 year, hit by civil unrest and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, supply chain disruptions that resulted in shortages for key products, a strike in its manufacturing business, as well as the discovery of gross misconduct in its security and fire division.
The group had also decided to exit the fire business, placing a subsidiary into voluntary liquidation in October.
Jasco’s shares were up nine per cent in afternoon trade on Monday, but this is not an unusually large move for the group, which has fallen almost two thirds on a one-year basis.
Hotel operator City Lodge has flagged at least a quadrupling of profit for its half-year to end-December, having said previously its recovery was putting it on track to exceed pre-pandemic occupancy levels.
Headline earnings per share are expected to rise by between 371 per cent and 402 per cent to end-December, the company said in a brief update, or by between 314 per cent and 345 per cent when excluding COVID-19 related business interruption claims.
Valued at more than R3 billion on the JSE, City Lodge operated 59 hotels across four brands as of its 2022 year, with more than 7 000 rooms.
At the end of its 2022 year, it said occupancy levels had tracked the easing of lockdown levels and seen a steady recovery to almost pre-COVID-19 occupancies in the last quarter of the financial year.
The steady improvement in occupancies and demand for hospitality services over the last few months had led to average group occupancies, based on total rooms inventory, of 38 per cent for the year ended June 2022, compared to dire 19 per cent levels in 2021. The group said it expected to exceed 2019 occupancy levels in its 2023 year.