{"id":77248,"date":"2019-04-25T10:27:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T08:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=77248"},"modified":"2019-04-25T10:27:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T08:27:48","slug":"pcl-profit-down-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/04\/25\/pcl-profit-down-7\/","title":{"rendered":"PCL profit down 7%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Taonga Sabola: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/George-Partridge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-37651\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/George-Partridge-300x119.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/George-Partridge-300x119.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/George-Partridge-768x304.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/George-Partridge.jpg 820w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Malawi Stock Exchange-listed conglomerate Press Corporations Limited (PCL) has posted a 7 percent drop in profitability for the year ended December 31 2018.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Wednesday, the firm says it recorded an after-tax profit of K36.71 billion in 2018, down from K39.67 billion in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>In the statement, signed by directors Patrick Khembo, George Partridge, Estelle Nuka and Elizabeth Mafeni, the conglomerate says the 2017 profit was higher after taking into account a K14.28 billion profit on the disposal of 19 percent stakes in Castel Malawi.<\/p>\n<p>The firm notes that, in 2018, it realised K6.16 billion from the disposal of a 60 percent stake in Open Connect Limited.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cExcluding the above mentioned once off items, the group therefore registered a 20 percent increase in its underlying profit after tax.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe strong performance was driven by continued improvements in operating efficiencies that resulted in cost reductions, notwithstanding t h e prevailing poor operating environment characterised by severe power challenges and weak demand for goods and services,\u201d<\/em> reads the statement in part.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In 2018, PCL acquired a 15 percent stake in Sunbird Tourism PLC in line with its strategy to invest in tourism.<\/p>\n<p>PCL says all but two of its subsidiaries, Peoples and Maldeco, posted profits in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>It further says one of its joint ventures, Castel Malawi, also made a loss mainly due to rehabilitation costs, reduced margins occasioned by the impact of erratic power supply and the attendant operating and quality control challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, PCL says it is well positioned to exploit growth opportunities both locally and in the region following the restructuring of most of the businesses.<\/p>\n<p>PLC further says the prevailing stable macro-economic environment provides a platform for continued growth.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe agriculture sector is expected to perform well following the good rains received across the country, which will have a positive impact on disposable incomes and demand for goods and services.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Taonga Sabola: Malawi Stock Exchange-listed conglomerate Press Corporations Limited (PCL) has posted a 7 percent drop in profitability for the year ended December 31 2018. In a statement on Wednesday, the firm says it recorded an after-tax profit of K36.71 billion in 2018, down from K39.67 billion in 2017. In the statement, signed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77251,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77248\/revisions\/77251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}