TORONTO — — Property services provider FirstService Corp. has reported a 35 per cent increase in quarterly sales but a net loss on the bottom line blamed on the strong Canadian dollar and the slumping U.S. real estate market.
FirstService, headquartered in Toronto but with its business concentrated in the United States, said Thursday it had revenue of $371.7-million (U.S.) in the fourth quarter of its financial year ended March 31, up from $275.7-million in the same period last year.
The 16,000-employee company reported a net loss of $12-million, or 40 cents per share, compared with a profit of $2.4-million, or 6 cents, in the prior year's fourth quarter.
There was a $1.4-million loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, down from year-ago EBITDA of $20.1-million.
Yearly revenue rose to $1.57-billion, up 33 per cent from $1.2-billion in 2007.
Net earnings for the year were $27.4-million, or 85 cents per share, down from $34.8-million, $1.08 per share,
Debt net of cash stood at $279.2-million at March 31, up from $132.3-million a year earlier.
"We had solid financial performance this year despite a challenging U.S. and global economy which demonstrated the importance of our diversification across service platforms and international markets," said Jay Hennick, FirstService's founder and chief executive officer.
"Revenues and EBITDA from our residential property management and property services divisions were up sharply over the prior year while results from our commercial real estate division were impacted by market conditions and weaker than expected in the fourth quarter."
© Canadian Press
