Overview
Palm Garden Hotels PLC owns and operates hotels and resorts across Sri Lanka and the Maldives, earning from rooms and food and beverage. Despite strong gross profitability, the group remains loss-making: even its March quarter, which is structurally the strongest for operating margin, stayed in the red as finance and tax absorbed operating gains. Tight liquidity and leverage keep balance-sheet repair as central as demand recovery.
Price performance
Closed at LKR 52.50 on 2026-08-06. The share fell 30.5% over 1 year against the ASPI’s 9.5% gain, and sits 38.2% below its 52-week high, only 6.7% above the low. Trading has been quieter, with 20-day volume 16.5% under its 60-day average.
Valuation
Loss-making, so no P/E. P/B is 1.69 versus the sector median 0.99. ROE for FY25 was -17.8%. The dividend yield is 0.0% versus a sector median 2.1%, with no recent payouts disclosed. For a company still posting negative earnings, the book multiple looks demanding against its peer median.
News and sentiment
Direct coverage is thin: 2 material articles in the last 90 days, with 0 positive and 1 negative. No confirmed corporate actions. The stock’s -18.5% 3‑month slide came with no company news in the last 30 days, consistent with price pressure absent fresh catalysts.
Financials
March quarter (latest filed): gross margin was 78.0% versus 69.5% a year earlier; operating margin was 13.5% versus 18.6%; net margin was -11.5% versus -4.1%. This is the company’s structurally strongest quarter for operating margin, and the print was a middling March by its own history.
Below the operating line remained heavy, with finance costs and tax creating a drag of LKR 612 million and keeping the quarter loss-making. Revenue fell year-on-year, and the share count rose from 436 million to 476 million during FY25, so per-share moves are not like-for-like.
Risks
The primary risk is debt serviceability: interest cover was 0.03x in FY25, leaving little cushion if operating momentum softens outside March. Liquidity is tight, with a current ratio of 0.28. Leverage is elevated at 96% of owners’ equity, and free cash flow was negative (about LKR 1.64 billion). Minority interests are material, with 21.5% of group net profit attributable to non-controlling shareholders, so group results overstate what belongs to PALM’s shares.
Outlook
As at 2026-08-07, the next results (June 2026 quarter) are due, expected by 2026-10-26. June has historically been the weakest quarter for operating margin, so that print will show whether losses widen outside the seasonal peak. With finance costs a key drag and interest rates easing in the market backdrop, the extent to which the finance charge abates will be the critical swing factor in the upcoming filing.