Qalaa Holdings records $115 million Year Loss

Qalaa Holdings, one of Egypt’s largest investment firms, reported a full-year net loss of 879.6 million Egyptian pounds ($115.3 million) on Thursday but said it would return to profit by the end of the current year.

Qalaa said its full-year net loss represented a 54 percent improvement from the previous year’s pro forma loss of 1.9 billion Egyptian pounds.

The company said earlier this week it might sell its 70 percent stake in Tanmeyah, which provides small loans to low income people who cannot otherwise access financial services.

Divesting a controlling stake in the North African country’s biggest private microfinance provider is part of a wider asset sale plan by Qalaa, which aims to raise $300 million to help the company return to profit this year.

Qalaa said on Thursday it would return to “bottom line” profitability by the end of 2015.

Qalaa Chairman Ahmed Heikal said the full-year results, which were after tax and minority interests, were in part muted by one-time charges in the fourth quarter of 2014, including “charges related to impairments, restructuring and layoffs, all of them designed to lock-in future efficiencies”.

Source:Reuters