Tag: Caribbean Containers

Posted on

Ron Webster acquired 85.31% stake in CCI for G$300,000 – and no money paid

A review by Business Page of Sunday Stabroek of May 5, 2013 of the annual reports and financial statements of three companies, including Caribbean Container Inc. (CCI), about which three concerns were raised, drew a sharp response from Mr Ronald Webster, that company’s Chairman and Managing Director in respect of one of those concerns which dealt with his controlling interest in CCI. It was Mr. Webster’s view that the column ignored certain statements in CCI’s annual reports for the years 2005 through to 2012.

So what did Business Page ignore? Here are five assertions in the reports by Mr. Webster as the company’s Managing Director and by the Board of which he is Chairman, each followed by the facts gleaned from publicly held records. I add some comments as seem appropriate.

Continue reading “Ron Webster acquired 85.31% stake in CCI for G$300,000 – and no money paid”

Posted on

On the Line: 2012 Annual reports of Caribbean Container Incorporated, Sterling Products Limited and Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated

Introduction
To avoid getting caught up in a backlog of annual reports, Business Page today reviews the annual reports of three of Guyana’s public companies – Sterling Products Limited which held its annual general meeting on April 19, Caribbean Container Incorporated (CCI) which held its annual general meeting on April 30 and Guyana Stockfeeds Limited whose AGM is scheduled for May 23. It is perhaps co-incidental that these companies have some striking similarities: they are all public companies but with a dominant shareholder, and none is among the big league of Guyana’s public companies. Indeed CCI accounts for 1.02% of the market capitalisation of the top ten public companies, Stockfeeds 1.07% and Sterling Products 1.12%. Cumulatively the three companies account for less than 3.25% of the market capitalisation of the top ten companies.

In their annual reports, each of the three companies reported better results in 2012 than in 2011, a trend among all public companies. Stockfeeds reported an increase in year-on-year profit after tax of 3.2% while Sterling declared an increase in after tax profit of 39.3%. CCI appears to have transformed a loss into a profit but this is almost entirely attributable to a reduction in book entry depreciation because of a change in the estimated useful life of assets.

Continue reading “On the Line: 2012 Annual reports of Caribbean Container Incorporated, Sterling Products Limited and Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated”

Posted on

On the Line: Caribbean Container Incorporated and Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated

Introduction
Today we continue our review of the annual reports of two more of the country’s public companies – Caribbean Container Incorporated (CCI) which held its annual general meeting last Friday and the Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated (Stockfeeds) whose annual general meeting is scheduled for tomorrow. Both these companies are on the Secondary List of the Guyana Association of Securities Companies Incorporated (GASCI), popularly referred to as the Guyana Stock Exchange.

As a result of a challenge in the High Court of Guyana by the government company National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), a shareholder of the company, the company is not permitted to issue any new shares until the outcome of this matter is fully settled. The regulator, GASCI has suspended trading of the company’s shares until the matter is settled. The shares of neither company, both of which have a dominant shareholder, are actively traded on GASCI with the last trade in the shares of CCI taking place on January 9 of this year while for Stockfeeds there has been no trade since October 27, 2008.

In the case of CCI, the dominant shareholder is a non-public company which goes by the name of Demerara Holdings Inc, which has some 129 million of the 152 million of the issued shares of the company, while in the case of Stockfeeds, Chairman and CEO Robert Badal owns some 35 million while an associate of his owns 25 million of the issued shares. Except for DDL and Banks DIH, the majority interest in all our public companies are held by a single shareholder with the minority shareholders playing a passive role. This raises the issue of the prospects of the survival of our public companies as they are supposed to operate.

CCI
CCI has had a checkered history with ownership changing hands from government to Ansa McAl to Rand Whitney and now Demerara Holdings Inc, which it is believed is in turn owned by CCI’s Executive Chairman Ronald Webster, who has been with the company for decades. In an era when recycling is becoming the buzzword, it is good to see CCI making some strides to sustainability. Its non-executive directors include Dr Elisabeth Ramlal and Mr Frank DeAbreu, one of Guyana’s younger breed of entrepreneurs.

Shares transactions
Shareholders were called upon to ratify the passing of two resolutions which had already received the blessing of the majority shareholder: one dealing with the cancellation of shares and the other with the issue of bonus shares. The first is to cancel 1,500,000 ordinary shares standing in the company’s name resulting from the reacquisition of the said shares. In 1992, these shares were allotted under an Employee Share Purchase Plan and were fully paid for on behalf of the employees via a loan from a financial institution. However, at the time of winding up the said plan, none of the shares allotted were taken up by the intended employees, nor had they settled the outstanding repayments in relation to those shares.

In keeping with the requirements of the Companies Act the directors of the company have decided to cancel these shares and treat them as part of the authorised but unissued shares. According to the company, the transaction should have no effect on the company’s equity but where I have some difficulty is the statement that the Revenue Reserve Account is credited and I doubt that shareholders would have been clearer.

The second resolution is to authorise the issue of 1 bonus share for every 50 shares owned. Bonus shares are not paid for and at one time were very popular in Guyana, particularly with Banks DIH. They have fallen into disuse because they are a kind of artificial transaction with a mere book entry between equity accounts without any increase in the company’s asset value or earnings prospects. Accordingly, if there is one bonus share for every one share in issue, the price per share is halved. However, when the capital market was even less developed than now, the share price never moved, and the ‘bonus” turned out to be a real bonus. Maybe with a bonus issue of one share for every fifty held, there is not going to be much change in the market price.

Financial Summary

Source: Audited financial statements 2011

In 2011, turnover increased by 13.4% from $887 million to just over one billion dollars and earnings before depreciation (EBDA) by 3.3% from $115 million to $119 million. Gross profit at $172 million was up by 19% over 2010’s GP of $145 million. The loss before tax was reduced by 25% from $7 million to $5 million. Without any real discussion, the Chairman attributed the year’s improved performance to good sales and production efficiencies. Gross profit on sales remained constant at 30% and while finance charges fell by $7 million, administrative expenses rose by $14 million, mainly in staff costs.

The company has some $66 million in retained earnings out of which dividends could be paid and may have caused one shareholder to complain to me that as a group they have been receiving nothing by way of dividends from the company. The company also has $43 million in the bank and there must be some reason for the ultra-conservative decision not to pay any dividend. Maybe there is a belief that a bonus of one share for every fifty held will appease the shareholders.

Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated
The company manufactures and distributes livestock feeds and related products including day-old broiler chicks to both the local and export markets. It also produces parboiled rice for the export market under its “Angel” brand. In the domestic market feed sales grew by 30% while baby chick sales grew by 5% but in the face of competition from Brazilian suppliers of parboiled rice, rice export sales declined by 16%.

Highlights are set out in the table below:

The annual report is not heavy on discussion. As a result the reader is left to scour note 4, Taxation to the financial statements, to determine why a $63 million increase in profit before tax should carry a corresponding $63 million increase in taxes with the result that the after-tax profit in 2011 is marginally less than in 2010. The explanation lies in a higher deferred taxation which in 2010 benefited from a lowering of the applicable tax rate.

The company pays a significant portion of its expenses through a related party ($852 million in 2011) and also pays the related party $30 million as a “reimbursement for costs incurred.” This was the same amount paid in 2010.

Expenditure on property, plant and equipment was $76 million and the overall decrease in cash was a substantial $240 million with the result that liquid balances declined from $304 million to $60 million. Faced with this situation the directors of the company are not recommending a dividend for the year 2011.
Minority shareholders in neither of these companies will be particularly happy.

Posted on

Half-yearly reports show increased turnover

Introduction
Caribbean Containers Inc, a public company in the paper recycling business has reported turnover for the first half of 2011 increasing by 9.3% over the same period last year. This follows a 10.3% reported turnover increase by the DDL Group of Companies and a 13.8% increase in the Banks DIH Group, the only one of the three with a September 30 year-end while CCI and DDL have a December 31 year end. The increases in turnover are of course considerably higher than the rates of inflation in the economy. Banks DIH in explaining its improved performance cited higher dollar sales, a term usually used in contradistinction from volume sales.

Caribbean Containers Inc.

CCI reported a gross profit increase over 2010 of 14.3% but its losses before tax increased from $21.8 million to $23.8 million. The report shows Earnings before depreciation as having declined in the first half of the year by 31.3% and that margins were severely affected by the rapid escalation in global fuel prices which resulted in the company’s fuel bill going up by some 40%.

The company’s performance in the third quarter ended September 30, 2011 improved strongly with an 18.3% growth in Earnings before depreciation compared with third quarter 2010. The result was a modest profit before tax of $2.7 million compared with a loss of $10.2 million for the third quarter of 2010. The overall result was a sharp decline in loss before tax for the nine months from $32 million in 2010 to $21million in 2011. The report explained that over the last four years, sales in the second half of the year averaged 13% more than in the first half.

CCI has had its fair share of financial problems over the years with a number of ownership changes and substantial debt restructuring. As at June 30, the company had liabilities of $365 million including trade and other payables of $116 million and loans repayable within a year amounting to $69 million. Cash resources amounted to $37 million but this had gone down to $25 million three months later.

In what can be described as Guyana’s principal LCDS private sector company, survival is still the challenge as the company’s aging technology has high running and maintenance cost, placing cash management at the centre of management focus.

Yet the company deserved commendation for being the only private sector company other than Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited to publish quarterly financial reports. The Bank of Guyana had published and recently withdrew Guideline # 10 requiring all banks to publish quarterly statements.

Banks DIH Limited

The half-yearly report is a consolidated report of the food and beverage giant and its subsidiary Citizens Bank Guyana Inc. Given the disparate nature of the operations and business of the two entities such a consolidated report does not allow any easy informed analysis of the two businesses.

The company had unaudited profit after tax in the half-year of $689.5 million compared to $594.1 million in 2010, an increase of $95.4 million or 16%. Chairman and Chief Executive of the group explained in the report that the improved results came mainly from increased dollar sales, efficiencies derived from Plant and Machinery upgrades and the benefits obtained from the installation of Capital Equipment.

The subsidiary Citizens Bank achieved an unaudited profit after taxation of $364.6 million compared to $261.0 million in 2010.

Total group profit after taxation for the half year was $1,025 million compared with $836 million, an increase of some 22% and a resulting increase in Earnings per Share from $0.71 per share to $0.85 per share.

A meaningful cash flow commentary is not possible as the cash and bank resources of the company cannot be distinguished from those of the banking subsidiary. Inventories, the bulk of which would be for the company stood at $4,367 million, increasing from $4,069 million one year earlier. For the type and nature of the operations this seems reasonable, particularly when compared with DDL to which we now turn attention.

Demerara Distillers Limited

This group comprises several local and overseas companies in the region, North America and Europe as well as a joint venture in India and associated companies in Guyana and Jamaica. In his Chairman’s Statement Dr. Yesu Persaud reported that the group’s pre-tax profit for the half-year of $769 million had increased by 6.4% over 2011, attributed to the performances of the European subsidiary, Demerara Shipping Company Limited and Distribution Services Limited.

When account is taken of increases in the fair value of investments and exchange differences on consolidation, the total comprehensive income for the year – a measure of the sum total of all operating and financial events that have changed the value of an owner’s interest in a business – is $627 million compared with $437 million in 2010. The group may have a challenge however in exceeding the full year reported profits for 2010 of $1,139 million. The profits for that year were augmented by a $151 million “share of profit of associated company.” In the first six months of 2011 this profit was only $8.4 million compared with $3.4 million in 2010 half-year, suggesting some major development in the second half of that year.

Earnings per share (EPS) have increased from $0.65 in half-year 2010 to $0.69 in 2011.

The balance sheet continues to be fair with current assets exceeding current liabilities by a ratio of nearly 2:1. The problem lies however in the composition of the two balance sheet components. Trade payables have climbed to $4 billion, bank overdraft is $2.8 billion and loans repayable in the next twelve months is close to half a billion dollars.

Share prices
None of the reports bother to speak of one of the most important issues for shareholders and that is the performance of the companies’ shares on the Stock Exchange. A comparison of recent prices is shown below: