(Alliance News) - Myanmar Investments International Ltd on Thursday posted a narrowed loss for the first half of its financial year, as employee benefits expense dropped sharply.
Shares in Myanmar Investments were 3.2% lower at USD0.75 each in late afternoon trading.
For the six months ended September 30, the Myanmar-focused investor said its pretax loss was USD1.2 million, narrowed from USD1.4 million the year before.
The main factor in this improvement was a very sharp drop in employee benefits expense to USD380,853 from USD644,981. This included a drop in salaries, wages, and other staff benefits to USD369,899 from USD535,503 and a decrease in share options expense to USD10,954 from USD95,778. In addition, bonuses were cut to nothing from USD13,700.
At its October 24 annual general meeting, Myanmar Investments shareholders approves a change investment objectives and the company is now focused on disposing of its investment portfolio with the goal of returning surplus cash to shareholders before winding down the business.
Nick Paris, managing director of Myanmar Investments International, said: "Your company is now focussed on implementing the change of investment objective that was approved at the recent AGM. As a result, no new investments will be made and steps are being actively taken to sell the existing investments when opportunities arise at acceptable prices. Our operating costs are under constant review in order to minimise our cash burn so as to return surplus capital to shareholders."
The company will be changing its year end to September 30, so will issue six month interims for the period to September 30 and the six months to March 202 followed by a full set of statements for the 18 months ended September 2021.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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