Air Mauritius Group and company results for the quarter ended 31-Dec-2014

13-Feb-2015

For the quarter ended 31 December 2014, the Group and the Company recorded losses of Eur 2.5 million and Eur 2.7 million respectively as compared to profits of Eur 8.8 million and Eur 8.6 million for the comparative period of last year. The losses incurred have been mainly due to the depreciation of the Euro and drop in revenue on account of fiercer competition.

Total passengers carried during the quarter increased by 0.5% to 375,156 as compared to 373,110 passengers carried during the quarter ended 31 December 2013. The Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) went up by 5.4% whilst the passenger load factor dropped from 77.5% to 73.1% when compared to the corresponding quarter of last year. As such, revenue decreased from Eur 128.0 million to Eur 123.7 million whereas operating expenses went up by Eur 2.9 million to reach Eur 116.9 million mainly on account of the depreciation of the Euro and increased operations.

The result of the quarter under review has been significantly affected by the depreciation of the Euro. When compared to the quarter ended 31 December 2013, the net negative impact of the depreciation of the Euro has been Eur 8.2M.

During the quarter under review, the Company operated 5 direct weekly flights to mainland China (Shanghai:3 /Beijing:2) as compared to only 3 direct weekly frequencies during the quarter ended 31 December 2013. However, operations to mainland China have not yielded the expected result showing significant drop in the passenger load factor from 78.6% to only 52.6% when compared to the corresponding quarter of last year.

Air Mauritius Group and company results for the nine months ended 31-Dec-2014

During the nine months period ended 31 December 2014, the Group and the Company have recorded losses of Eur 8.7 million and Eur 9.1 million respectively. For the corresponding period last year, the Group and the Company had recorded profits of Eur 5.7 million and Eur 5.2 million respectively.

The result of the nine months period under review has been significantly impacted by the depreciation of the Euro. When compared to the nine months ended 31 December 2013, the net negative impact of the depreciation of the Euro has been Eur 18.5M.

The number of passengers carried went up by 2.5% to reach a record level of 1,016,314 as compared to 991,907 during the nine months ended 31 December 2013. The Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) went up by 4.9% whilst the passenger load factor dropped from 75.5% to 73.2% when compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Operating revenue of the Company went up by Eur 6.9 million to reach Eur 351.0 million whereas operating expenses increased by Eur 11.9 million from Eur 322.3 million to Eur 334.2 million mainly on account of the higher level of operations and the depreciation of the Euro.

Shareholders' funds

Total Shareholders' Funds for the Company decreased from Eur 83.7 million as at 31 March 2014 to Eur 70.2 million as at 31 December 2014. The resulting net assets per share as at 31 December 2014 is Eur 0.69 (Rs 26.33) as compared to Eur 0.82 (Rs 33.77) as at 31 March 2014. The drop in the Shareholders' Funds is mainly attributable to the loss for the period, movement in cash flow hedges and actuarial gains on defined benefits plan.

Outlook

The Company will benefit from the recent drop in the fuel prices. However, this will be offset by the drastic depreciation of the Euro since end of December 2014. The Company, on the other hand, has taken various initiatives to boost up traffic on its network in the wake of fiercer competition on major routes and has also reinforced its monitoring of all its costs.