Barbican profit up 847%, but it remains worst performer on ZSE

Barbican Holdings made a net profit of $548.2 million in the first six months of this year, nearly 10 times the profit it made during the same period last year but it remains the worst performer on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

The company says it plans to demerge its private equity investment to unlock its value because it is not being fully reflected in the holding company. The demerger should take place in the next 8 months.

The company, which opened a commercial bank in July, saw its fee and commission income drop by almost half from $188.6 million during the first half of last year to $95.6 million but this was better than the $64.2 million it realised during the year ending December.

It also realised $125 million in other income. It did not have other income the entire financial year last year. Investment and other income shot up from $20.8 million to $1 billion compared with $1.2 billion for the entire 2002.

Operating profit increased from $82.5 million to $754.7 million beating that for 2002 which stood at $747.2 million.

This was largely because of a reduction in operating expenses which dropped from $527.9 million last year to $467.8 million. Net profit stood at $548.2 million, up from $57.9 million during the first half of last year and $505.3 million for the full year.

The company says it expects a stronger performance in the second half.

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