LUI expects 2006 profits higher

Louis Group Public Co. Ltd. (LUI) announced that it expects this year’s net profits to be substantially better than last year’s CYP 8.03 mln despite a near doubling in first quarter losses.

Operating income during the first quarter fell to CYP 12 mln from CYP 15.4 mln a year ago in the same period. Total costs were flat at CYP 15.29 mln compared to CYP 15.55 mln a year ago, despite the addition of new cruise ship.

Operating losses surged to CYP 3.25 mln from CYP 135k losses a year ago in the same period as most of the cruises and hotels of the group remained closed during the first quarter.

LUI results were further burdened by CYP 1.96 mln in hotel rent and CYP 3.75 mln in depreciation charge, while net financing costs amounted to CYP 2.54 mln.

Although the decline in the value of the US dollar helped the group book unrealised profits, the impact was not enough to overturn the net loss of CYP 10.07 mln attributed to shareholders in the first quarter of 2006 compared to a net loss of CYP 5.21 mln a year ago.

The company revealed that the first quarter was negatively affected as this year the Group did not benefit from the change in taxation of its Greek hotels. In the first quarter of last year, the impact was CYP 3.4 mln, while for the whole of 2005, the tax benefit amounted to CYP 4.8 mln.

Despite the loss of the tax benefit, LUI issued a bullish forecast for its 2006 profit, insisting that the results will be significantly better than last year’s net profit of CYP 8.03 mln.