Trustco suffers gross loss of nearly N$1.7 bn

Trustco Group Holdings in a media on Tuesday bragged about a 257%-increase in its profit after tax for its past financial year, while in its annual integrated report (AIR), both the group’s board of directors and its independent auditors warned that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group and company's ability to continue as a going concern.

The Namibian-based group, which share trading was suspended on the JSE late last year, reported a gross loss of nearly N$1.7 billion for the 12 months ended 31 August 2022.

A gain of N$3.36 billion on “deemed disposal of subsidiaries” reported in the income statement, turned the Trustco ship around to report a net profit of about N$1.4 billion for the year – an year-on-year (y/y) improvement of 257% on the loss of N$917 million reported for the restated 11 months ended 31 August 2021.

“Trustco has completed its first year of reporting as an investment entity under IFRS 10, providing its co-investors with transparency into the fair value of its underlying investments,” group managing director Quinton van Rooyen said in the media statement.

Auditors, board

In the financial notes in Trustco’s AIR, its independent auditors, Nexia SAB&T, said the group and company’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets by N$570 million and N$454 million, respectively.

Total assets, however, exceeded total liabilities by N$1.834 billion and N$1.96 billion, respectively.

Also in the AIR, Trustco’s board of directors said it assessed the group’s prospects as a going concern.

As part of their assessment, the board of directors considered working capital requirements, availability of resources and reserves either from existing operational activities or further borrowings, available information about the future, financial impact of ongoing litigation, the possible outcomes of planned events and the responses to such events and conditions that would be available to the board.

“Following the above assessment, the board of directors believe that the above factors, coupled with prevailing economic conditions and forecast economic outlook presents some challenges for the foreseeable future,” it said.

To address future cash flow requirements, detailed liquidity improvement initiatives have been developed and are being pursued, with the implementation thereof regularly monitored, the board continued.

Restatement

Trustco in November agreed to restate its group annual financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2019, as well as its interim results for the six months ending 31 August 2018 after a protracted legal battle with the JSE and the Financial Services Tribunal in South Africa.

In its press statement on Tuesday, Trustco said restatements were made.

These include reversing shares issued to Next and its associates with a current market value of N$258 million in the 2020 reporting period in terms of the earnout mechanism of the Huso Transaction, the reinstatement of loans of N$1.5 billion in favour of Next, and Next's entitlement to a payment of N$2.9 billion if the earnout targets of the Huso transaction are met before 2028.

“The restatements relate to financial reporting periods before the current period and affect the financial position and associated financial performance for the periods ending 31 March 2019, 30 September 2020, and 31 August 2021,” Trustco said.

Appeal

However, the group chairman Raymond Heathcote said the board yesterday petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal and “may revisit the issues should they succeed on appeal”.

“The act of a regulator instructing an independent board to restate its financials in a way that results in an increase in the company's liability on its balance sheet by N$1.5 billion is unfair and unjust.

“No regulatory authority should have complete autonomy to make such decisions without proper checks and balances in place,” Heathcote said.