31st Mar 2020 14:19
(Alliance News) - Agriterra Ltd on Tuesday reported a narrowed annual pretax loss as it said its shares will soon be restored to trading following the publication of its interim results for the first half of financial 2020.
The shares - last quoted at 5.47 pence each - were suspended from trading after the company missed its September 30 deadline to publish results for its year ended March 31, 2019. The company said that the interim and annual accounts were not finalised due to investigations into two instances of theft an operational level.
However, the investigations have now been finalised after a forensic audit carried out by PKF Littlejohn LLP confirmed findings by Agriterra's internal audit team. The gross loss to the company of the incidences of theft totalled USD21,000 with a net loss of USD9,000. The additional costs incurred by the auditors was around USD55,000 and by the forensic auditor around USD155,000
For the year to the end of March 2019, the agricultural investor reported revenue of GBP10.6 million, up from GBP9.2 million reported the year prior. Pretax loss narrowed to GBP3.1 million from GBP5.0 million.
For the first half of financial 2019, the grain division saw subdued demand and pricing for maize flour. However, steps to improve the quality of maize and an increase in volumes in the second half resulted in volumes rising 2% to 16,791 tonnes from 16,472 tonnes the year prior. Revenue for the division was up to USD6.5 million from USD5.2 million.
Additionally, cost rationalisation measures taken by the company started to show benefits in the second half as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization loss in the Beef division narrowed to USD485,000 from USD1.3 million and Ebitda loss in the Grain division narrowed to USD485,000 from USD597,000.
Agriterra said it has experienced a good start to financial 2020, adding that while it does not expect the Covid-19 outbreak to significantly hurt demand, the pandemic presents potential short-term risks such as making to harder to secure funding which the company may need.
No dividend was proposed, unchanged from the year prior.
By Ife Taiwo; [email protected]
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