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Lower profits for Louis

29/11/2007 11:02
Louis’ profits for the first nine months of the year are lower by 8.4%. The profits attributable to shareholders stood at £17.8 million against £19.3 million in 2006, while the EPS amounted to 4.21 cents compared to 4.55 cents in the first nine months of 2006.

According to Louis, this drop is attributable to the reduced profits from the loss of Sea Diamond which, despite the insurance coverage, caused serious operating problems of £8.0 million. The Company announced that it was forced to proceed with a charter of foreign ships.

These problems affected the operating profit before taxes, interests, depreciations and hotel rents that stood at £33.7 million against £43.7 million in the corresponding period of 2006. The increase in the price of oil and the exchange rate of the dollar against the euro also affected negatively the Company’s operating profit.

The profit from operations after the finance cost declined to £5.1 million compared to £17.1 million in 2006.

This year’s net results include taxes of £1.6 million, while the positive impact in 2006 was due to the readjustment of deferred taxation. The largest part of this tear’s taxation concerns the settlement of obligations of the previous years.

The Board of Directors of Louis also announced its decision to hold a new meeting on December 10, 2007 in order to prepare a buyback program and to set the date for an Extraordinary General Meeting for the approval of the relevant resolution.

It is worth noting that from 22/11/2007 to 27/11/2007, Louis Chairman Costakis Loizou acquired 2,953,078 Louis shares. Since then, Louis is recording gains of 19.6% to €0.55.