Feb 2015 Financial News

TCL declares $211m loss in 2014

Feb 24, 2015

Trinidad Cement Ltd recorded a loss of $211.0 million for 2014, as the financially troubled company wrote down the value of its investment in the Barbados-based Arawak Cement Company by $153 million and in deferred tax assets by $86 million. 

At a news conference at a corporate box at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday, TCL chairman Wilfred Espinet said if the one-time impairment expenses were excluded from the results, the profit after tax figure would have amounted to $88 million, which would have been 166 per cent higher on a like-by-like basis than in 2013.

He said: “We decided to follow prudent management and addressed several matters raised by auditors that have been open for several years, therefore the company’s results were affected by big non-cash expenses. “However, I am pleased that the operating profit excluding the extraordinary items grew at double digit.” 

This was in apparent reference to the fact that TCL’s EBITDA (earnings before, interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation and exluding extraordinary items totalled $465 million in 2014, compared with $410 in 2013. 

TCL’s EBITDA in 2014 was impacted by extraordinary expenses of $57 million, which included the cost of the unsuccessful debt refinancing exercise ($19 million), legal costs in cases against shareholders ($6 million), the impairment of aged clinker ($20 million) and the provision of unfunded backpay to employees ($12 million).

Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Tuesday February 24, 2015

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2015-02-24/tcl-declares-211m-loss-2014