Arnaud Dalais-led CIEL Limited posts $10.45-million full-year profit, as earnings rebound

Omokolade Ajayi -

Mauritius-based CIEL Limited (CIEL) has posted MUR446 million ($10.45 million) in full-year profit for the financial year ending on June 30, as earnings rebound strongly from last year.

Compared with last year’s figures, its full-year profit for the 2021 financial period rose by 121.5 percent from a MUR2.18-billion ($51.2 million) loss in 2020 to a profit of MUR446 million ($10.45 million), as group revenues remain below pre-pandemic levels.

CIEL is a Mauritian conglomerate operating in more than 10 emerging and developing economies across Africa and Asia.

The group operates in five business clusters in Mauritius, Africa and Asia through its subsidiaries, including CIEL Agro and Property, CIEL Finance, CIEL Hotels and Resorts, CIEL Textile and CIEL Healthcare.

The Mauritian multimillionaire Dalais family holds a joint controlling stake in the group, with Jean-Pierre Dalais, Marc Dalais, Arnaud Dalais and Thierry Dalais holding  governance roles.

The group revealed that cost-optimization strategies and decisive actions were taken in response to the global pandemic in early 2020, which enabled CIEL to emerge stronger and leaner from the crisis.

Revenues of MUR17.9 billion ($420.0 million) coupled with EBITDA of MUR2.7 billion ($63.3 million) resulted in an EBITDA margin of 15.1 percent for the financial year ending June 30.

This is 0.5-percentage points higher than last year’s level (2020: 14.6 percent). The group’s EBITDA margin growth revealed that CIEL became more profitable in 2021 than during the previous year on the back of its cost-optimization strategies.

On the operational front, the group announced that its diversified portfolio delivered improved margins in all investment sectors, except for hotels and resorts, which has been severely affected by the net impact of lockdowns in Mauritius and international travel restrictions.

Considering the improvement to its financial performance and its strong capital position, the board declared an interim dividend of MUR0.05 ($0.001174) per share, relating to the financial year ending June 30.

The dividend will be paid this year on or around Oct. 29, while Arnaud Dalais, the chairman of CIEL, is expected to pocket MUR23 million ($540,600) from the dividend distribution.