Mauritian tycoon Arnaud Dalias-led CIEL reports $4.4 million in profits, as Q1 earnings rebound strongly

Mauritian conglomerate CIEL Limited has reported a rebound in its earnings in the first quarter of its 2022 financial year thanks to a reduction in its depreciation and amortization costs and a decline in its finance costs over the three-month period that ended on Sept. 30.

CIEL is a broad-based Mauritian conglomerate with active operations and investments in more than 10 emerging and developing economies across Africa and Asia. Its investments are spread throughout five business clusters across its subsidiaries’ operations.

Arnaud Dalais, who is the chairman of the Mauritian conglomerate, holds an eight-percent stake in the conglomerate.

Figures contained in the conglomerate’s Q1 filing revealed that the company’s earnings during the period soared by 171 percent through a mix of revenue- and cost-maximization strategies that paid huge dividends during the period under review.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations and the difficulties it experienced in its operating environment, CIEL rebounded from a loss of MUR269.5 million ($6.2 million) in Q1 2021 to a profit of MUR192 million ($4.4 million) in Q1 2022.

In addition to the boost from its cost-optimization strategies that led to a decline in its depreciation and amortization costs and a reduction in its net-finance costs, the company’s earnings benefitted from improved profitability in all clusters and decreased losses from its hotels and resorts activities in the prior-year period.

The strong performance from all its business clusters boosted its revenue from MUR4.63 billion ($106 million) in Q1 2021 to MUR5.97 billion ($136.6 million) in Q1 2022.

The strong growth in its earnings in Q1 2022 comes nearly four months after it reported a robust 121.5-percent growth in its earnings 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.

As a result of the robust financial performance, the value of its assets rose from MUR84.1 billion ($1.9 billion) to MUR85.7 billion ($2 billion) during the period under review.