Pulse profits plunge
Published:Friday | January 3, 2025 | 12:09 AM
Pulse Investments reported a double-digit fall in earnings for the September first quarter which followed on from write-downs to end its financial year.
The company continues to transition after the passing of its founder, Kingsley Cooper, last June. Revenue for the September quarter totalled $133 million or half the $275 million generated a year prior, while profits fell by two-thirds to $161.5 million from $484 million.
Pulse’s operating revenue stems from TV programme sales, market sponsorship, model agency representation, show production and promotion, and rental income from leasehold properties. However, impairments were recorded in 2024 to reflect reduced recoverability of certain assets, including advertising entitlements.
For the full financial year ending June 2024, the company faced additional challenges with restated 2023 financials and $260 million in write-downs or impairments that impacted its bottom line.
“This reflects management’s recognition of the possibility that not all credits may be fully recoverable, particularly from media houses which show reduced activity in recent years,” according to co-managing director, Safia Cooper, in response to Financial Gleaner queries.
For the financial year ending June 2024, revenue amounted to $815.9 million, down 14 per cent year-on-year. The combination of declining revenue, impairment losses, and a drop in Other Operating Income brought Pulse’s net profits to $543 million, a fraction of the $1.43 billion in the restated 2023 accounts.
In its directors report the company stated that “Cooper’s unexpected and untimely death, and the tremendous vacuum it leaves have sharply focused the company’s emphasis on the next-step decisions to be made”.
“The year ahead presents its fair share of challenges of which the directors are keenly aware, and intense discussions are under way as to the best route to take in maximising value of the development for the benefit of the company and its shareholders,” Pulse committed.
Despite significant infrastructure work, the Pulse Homes project has been delayed with the passing of former chairman and its main driver, Kingsley Cooper. The project was earmarked to be a 30-unit mix of two- and three-bedroom homes set in an ecofriendly, lifestyle community in the St Andrew hills, five minutes from Andrew’s Manor Park.
Pulse valued its real estate investment properties at $8.3 billion to September which comprised the bulk of its $12 billion in total assets. Its capital remained flat year on year at $2.3 billion to September.