Orascom: More sales, but net loss
Orascom Development Holding expects its largest subsidiary, Orascom Hotels and Development (OHD), to increase revenues by 24 to 26 percent year-on-year in fiscal 2015. At the same time, net profits are expected to double. For the group as a whole, Orascom expects consolidated revenues to increase by 20 to 22 percent, though the company expects to slip back into the red. The net loss will range between CHF 21 million and CHF 23 million, compared to a net profit of CHF 41.9 million in 2014, Orascom informs.
The increase in the Group's revenues were mostly driven by the increase in sales at OHD, by the opening of a hotel in Oman and the delivery of the first ten apartment buildings in Montenegro. According to Orascom, the bottom-line loss was mainly due to an increase in ODH's share of losses in Andermatt Swiss Alps (ASA) and Orascom Housing Communities (OHC), the group's largest (non-consolidated) investments, as well as a decline in the profitability of the hotel segment in Egypt. Furthermore, Orascom took one-off write-downs based on the principle of prudence, and currency losses due to a weaker Swiss franc and the devaluation of the Egyptian pound would also have had a negative impact.
Orascom Development Holding's full results for the 2015 financial year will be published on April 14, 2016, and those of its subsidiary OHD on March 30, 2016. (ah)
