AHL Group back to profitability: Malawi’s tobacco auctioneer and investments giant
Latest audited financial reports for AHL Group, Malawi’s tobacco auctioneer and investments giant, show that the company has made a profit of K4.2 billion for the first quarter of the 2018/2019 financial after successfully cutting its loss by over 50 percent to K19 billion for the 2017/2018 financial year from K40 billion the previous year.
AHL Group board chairperson, Margret Roka Mauwa, is expected to present the two audited reports to the company’s anxious shareholders at their 55th Annual General Meeting at Kanengo in Lilongwe on Friday.
The reports reveal that one of AHL Group’s subsidiaries, Malawi Leaf, which was the main source of the K40 billion loss in 2016, has completely turned around and has since declared a remarkable profit of K300 million during the first quarter of the current financial year.
Company sources said the latest financial outcomes are a result of successful turnaround strategies which have resulted into improved performance by most of the group’s subsidiaries.
AHL Group’s subsidiary companies include AHL Tobacco Sales, TIL Limited, Agricultural Trading Company (ATC), AHL Commodities Exchange (AHCX), Malawi Leaf, AHL Chemicals and Steel Limited and new born baby, IC-Tech Africa.
The 2016/2017 loss came as a result accounting and trade challenges at Malawi Leaf which left the group with a deep balance sheet technical loss.
The auditors had included a about K40 billion outstanding loan Malawi Leaf has with PTA Bank as an expense and an adjustment of figures in Malawi Leaf’s previous year’s accounts also contributed to the loss.
The auditors, Deloitte, however, stated in the reports that AHL Group had sufficient working capital to continue trading for the foreseeable future and that the company had sufficient support from its shareholders and directors.
Mauwa told the AGM last year that although the matters at Malawi Leaf had significantly affected the picture of the group, the company had gone ahead to address the issues.
“Measures have been taken to consolidate the group’s debt into one and get it restructured for longer period of about eight years,” said Mauwa.
She also said priority had also been placed on re-capitalising subsidiaries companies without resorting into further debt.
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