Sydney - Monday - September 22: (RWE Aust Business News) -...

Sydney - Monday - September 22: (RWE Aust Business News) - Souls
Private Equity Ltd (ASX:SOE) reported a net loss of $29.23 million for
the year to July 31 2008, compared with a profit of $16.41m in FY07.
Revenue was up 24 per cent to $25.29m.
Earnings per share was a loss of 4.92c against earnings of 2.76c
previously.
The major contributors to the loss included impairment of $22.4
million against the unlisted small and medium sized enterprises (SME)
portfolio of loans and investments and a $12.2m market value decrease in
the listed share portfolio.
The reported net assets of the consolidated entity have decreased
to $138.2m.
Souls expects improved earnings performances from several
investments within the SME portfolio during 2009 including Pitt Capital
Partners, Cromford, Specialist Oncology Property, Austgrains, Supercorp,
Belaroma and Soda Brands.
It expects that property values in Hong Kong will not increase at
the same rate as they did during the 2008 fiscal year and therefore it
will experience a decline in the earnings of Asian Property Investments
for the 2009 financial year.