Africa Railways leading investor Qalaa Holdings (formerly Citadel Capital) has released its consolidated financial results for the period ending 31 March 2015, reporting revenues of $253.6 million, up 42.5% from the same period last year.
The topline growth was driven mainly by operational improvements at Qalaa Holdings’ Cement subsidiary in Sudan, which recorded revenue growth of USD 17.15Million, a 157% increase over 1Q14.
In addition, Qalaa’s energy platform company TAQA Arabia saw its revenues increase by 57% to $68.55 million in first quarter of 2015. Together, the energy and cement portfolios contributed 71% to consolidated revenues.
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As a result of the revenue growth, the investment company saw profit before tax grow to $35.91 million, representing an eight-fold increase from 2014’s quarter one profit before tax of $3.78 million, and well on-target to meet management’s stated goal of closing 2015 with profit before tax of above $150 million.
“2015 is off to a good start for Qalaa as the strategic transformation and operational improvements undertaken in 2014 continue to be positively reflected in the Company’s financial performance,” said Mr Ahmed Heikal, chairman and founder of Qalaa Holdings.
“We are now on-track to meet our previously stated profitability of over 150 Million US Dollars by the end of 2015 on the back of asset sales, disposal of discontinued operations, and a decline in interest expenses as we push through with our ongoing deleveraging program,” added Mr Heikal.
Qalaa Holdings recorded a 51.6% decrease in net loss after tax to $14.61M in quarter one of 2015, compared to the $30.19 million recorded in the same period 2014. The improvement in net loss recorded was despite the impact of devaluation of the Egyptian pound against the US Dollar during the same period which led to the local currency depreciating by 6.7% and contributed an additional $6.90Million in foreign exchange charges to the Investment Company’s expenses along with a significant inflation on the interest expenses to Company’s Dollar denominated debt.
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