28th May 2014 14:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sacoil Holdings Ltd Wednesday said its swung to a pretax profit in its last financial year due to higher investment income and lower operating costs.
The African oil and gas company, which is yet to produce any revenues, posted a pretax profit of ZAR64.7 million for the twelve months ended February 28, compared with a pretax loss of ZAR29.3 million the previous year.
Sacoil said the majority of its profits came from an increase in its investment income to ZAR130.6 million, from ZAR46.9 million, which was mainly due to a weakening of the rand and interest being accrued from its loan to Energy Equity Resources Norway Ltd.
The company also said its operating costs fell by 43% to ZAR100.2 million, from ZAR175.6 million, due to a combination of improved cost management and a reduction in the impairments of the group's financial assets.
On Tuesday, the company announced that it expected to report basic earnings per share of between 1.25 cents and 1.49 cents for the year ended February 28, compared with a basic loss per share of 6.10 cents a year earlier. On Wednesday, the company reported this figure at 1.37 cents.
Earlier this month, the company said that it would push ahead with seeking approval for taking a 20% stake in an oil prospecting license in Nigeria, after a key hurdle delaying the deal that was signed in 2010 fell.
The company said at the time that Transnational Corporation of Nigeria PLC had informed it that the production sharing agreement had now been signed, and SacOil intended to liaise with Trasncorp to seek Nigerian government approval for the transfer of a 20% participating interest to the AIM-listed company.
Sacoil shares were down 6.3% to 3.00 pence on Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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