Sri Lanka Aitken Spence Hotels net up on interest

Feb 14, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Aitken Spence Hotels, which also has operations in the Maldives, said net profit for the December quarter was up 30 percent to 272 million rupees, with revenues growing 5.





0 percent 2.0 billion from a year earlier. But operating profits fell 9.0 percent to 351 million during the quarter with higher expenses and lower 'other operating income' from 25 million rupees to 3.

5 million.

Finance income rose to 61 million from 1.

1 million rupees a year earlier and interest expenses fell to 63 million rupees from 87 million, allowing the firm's net interest expense to narrow to just 1.6 million rupees from 87 million a year earlier.

Aitken Spence Hotels' balance sheet showed short term deposits of 2.7 billion rupees. In the June quarter the firm raise 2.

49 billion rupees from a rights issue.

The group reported earnings per share of 80 cents for the quarter.

For the nine months to December group profits were reported at 508 million rupees, up from 148 million a year earlier.

Earnings for the nine months were 1.29 rupees per share.

For the nine months pre-tax profits from operations in Sri Lanka were 401 million rupees, up from a loss of 31 million a year earlier and profits from the rest of South Asia were