TCL reports full-year loss

Trinidad Cement Ltd recorded a loss of TTD211m for last year, as the company wrote down the value of its investment in Arawak Cement Company (Barbados) by TTD153m and in deferred tax assets by TTD86m.

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 TTD88m, which would have been 166 per cent higher YoY on a like-by-like basis.

Revenues rose by nine per cent YoY driven by growth in its domestic markets of Trinidad and Jamaica, improved concrete sales volumes and price increases implemented in Trinidad, Jamaica and Guyana. Additionally, group company Caribbean Cement Co Ltd (CCCL) was able to supply 1550,000t (2013: 36,000t) of clinker from its plant in Jamaica to Venezuela under the PetroCaribe agreement.

EBITDA remained flat YoY at TTD408m and was affected by extraordinary expenses of TTD57m, including the cost of the unsuccessful debt refinancing exercise, legal costs in cases against shareholders, the impairments of aged clinker and provision of unfunded back-payment to employees. On a like-for-like basis, excluding these costs, EBITDA increased 13 per cent to TTD465m.

Operations of Premix and Precast Concrete  Inc (Barbados), a subsidiary of Readymix (West Indies) were discontinued as of 30 September due to prolonged operating losses, resulting in a loss of TTD5.7m for 2014.