Celestial Asia improves on lack of exceptional charges
Celestial Asia Securities Holdings has slashed its first-half net loss by 96 per cent year on year.
However, the improvement was due more to an absence of exceptional losses compared with the previous year than a business rebound.
The company, which controls brokerage CASH Financial Services Group and retailer Pricerite, posted a net loss of HK$10.87 million in the six months to June 30, compared with HK$293.4 million last year.
The reduced loss stemmed mainly from the absence of restructuring costs and impairment losses on investment.
In the first half last year, the company said it had spent about HK$42.67 million consolidating its retail and brokerage operations.
Its technology investments also incurred an impairment loss of HK$173.9 million.
This year, group turnover rose 64.6 per cent to HK$578.7 million from HK$351.63 million due to the consolidation of Pricerite's turnover for the six months.
As Pricerite was bought by Celestial Asia in March last year, it made only a three-month contribution to last year's interim result.
However, the retailer has seen its net profit plummet this year. During the first six months, profit plunged more than 90 per cent to HK$1 million from HK$12.78 million previously, partly due to a loss of almost HK$4 million on trading of securities. Turnover also fell 6.65 per cent to HK$466 million.
Meanwhile, in the same period, CASH Financial saw turnover increase more than threefold to HK$111.9 million, while its net loss was down 9.8 per cent to HK$29.7 million.
