CH Bailey posts loss amid poor trading conditions

Poor trading conditions and worsening exchange rates were blamed for the loss in CH Bailey's interim report to 30 September on Monday.

The AIM-listed hospitality property developer and heavy engineering firm posted a loss after tax of £717,182, compared with a small profit of £32,457 for the same period last year.

CH Bailey blamed the loss on a foreign currency swing of £471,271, and fair value reductions on investments of £142,000.

Total revenue decreased by 12.5% to £2.4m, which the firm put down to difficult hospitality trading conditions in Africa, and the disposal of its hotel in Malta.

The company did, however, reduce its non-current bank debt by £737,000, and its total external debt by £1.4m.

It also spent £2m on development properties in Malta and Montagu, South Africa.

"We continue to put in place measures to control costs whilst being vigilant about maintaining high levels of client service", said chairman David Wilkinson in a statement.

"We are confident that there are difficult market conditions associated with the countries and sectors in which the group operates in, and so sales are always difficult to increase in the short term and require a team effort to achieve increases in a sustainable way", he added.

Looking forward, Wilkinson said he believes the strategies that have been implements to diversify CH Bailey's revenue streams will "start to bear fruit".

CH Bailey paid a special dividend of 0.2p per share on 16 October.

At 0845 GMT, shares in CH Bailey were down 15.49% to 150p.