Displaying items by tag: South Africa

South Africa: PCC recorded sales of US$332m in the first half of its 2021 financial year, up by 1% from US$328m in the first half of its 2020 financial year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 15% to US$66m from US$58m. Cement volumes fell in South Africa by 5% and in Botswana by 10% due to 35% slump in total volumes in the first quarter. The company said that this was due to muted cement sales in April 2020 and May 2020 as a result of Covid-19-related trading restrictions in South Africa. Cement sales have since recovered with strong year-on-year growth since June 2020. The increase in volumes is primarily retail led. PPC also said that it is beginning to experience the positive impact of increased infrastructure spending.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Roland van Wijnen said, “I am pleased that we are once again able to serve our customers and play our part in keeping the economy going. My gratitude goes to my colleagues who have been working diligently to keep our operations running while observing stringent health and safety protocols. Our business has benefited from a strong recovery in cement sales in all our markets, post the easing of the lockdown restrictions, and this has resulted in improved financial performance for the group. Our efforts to improve cost competitiveness and reposition PPC on a sound financial footing are yielding encouraging results and we are making good progress on our capital restructuring project, which remains a key priority for the group.”

South Africa: The Competition Tribunal has confirmed an agreement between PPC and the South African Competition Commission granting the company immunity from prosecution in an investigation allegedly involving price fixing and market sharing between local cement producers from 1995 to 2009. The Cape Times newspaper has reported that the ruling additionally granted the company immunity from related fines. PPC has reportedly agreed not to engage in price fixing or prohibited conduct in the future. The Commission said, "In addition, it will have to develop a competition law compliance programme."

AfriSam and Lafarge Industries South Africa paid fines related to the case. However, a case against Natal Portland Cement (NPC) was dismissed.

Nigeria: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Africa recorded sales worth US$471m in the first nine months of 2020, up by 10% year-on-year from US$427m in the corresponding period of 2019. Its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) increased by 15.7% to US$108m from US$93m.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Khaled El Dokani said, “Our robust results for the first nine months reflect the strong recovery of the demand in the third quarter and the successful implementation of our ‘Health, Cost & Ccash' initiatives.” He added that this was despite the impact of coronavirus and negative local currency effects.

South Africa: PPC recorded sales of US$618m in the 2020 financial year, which ended 31 March 2020, down by 2.4% year-on-year from US$634m in the 2019 financial year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation fell by 17% to US$97.0m from US$118m.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Roland van Wijnen said, “The 2020 financial year was characterised by difficult trading conditions, especially in South Africa. The global Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged during the last month of the financial year, further exacerbated an already difficult trading cycle. While we have seen a decline in our financial performance, we also see that the actions we have taken to reposition PPC to deliver sustainable value for all our stakeholders are beginning to yield results.”

He added, “After the resumption of trading in the 2021 financial year, the performance across all of our core businesses has been encouraging. The group’s capital restructuring remains a key priority. Over the next nine months, we will take the strategic and operational actions needed to improve the group’s financial position and performance. It is encouraging to see how PPC employees have come together to drive performance to sustain our purpose to empower people to experience a better quality of life.”

South Africa: PPC has announced the postponement of its full year results for the financial year that ended 31 March 2020 “as a result of required restatements and the finalisation of the year-end audit.” The company has twice delayed the results already, most recently to 18 August 2020 due to a “restructuring and refinancing project.”

In a notice to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, PPC said, “The company wishes to advise shareholders that during the audit process for the year ended 31 March 2020, and subsequent to 18 August 2020, additional prior year errors were identified and corrected.”

South Africa: PPC says that it has extended existing short-term banking facilities with its two primary South African lenders until at least September 2021 and deferred scheduled interest and capital repayments on long-term facilities until March 2021. The company says that it will “enhance its security position through a security pool arrangement” and “reduce the levels of gearing in South Africa through a combination of a capital raise and asset sales.” It added, “Any capital raise is conditional on the implementation of the other project steps.”

PPC also signed a new working capital facility with its third South African lender, which it says “provides on-going liquidity until December 2021.”

South Africa: PPC has delayed the publication of its annual results for the year to 31 March 2020 for a second time due to a “restructuring and refinance project.” It now expects to publish the results by late September 2020. It previously delayed reporting its financial results when the Johannesburg Stock Exchange allowed it to delay releasing the figures because of challenges created by the coronavrius pandemic. The cement producer also said it has found errors in its financial reporting for the year that ended in March 2019 due to mistakes made in valuing operations in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and a miscalculation of the accounting of a foreign-exchange transaction in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The group expects that revenue for the year to 31 March 2020 will decline by no more than 5% year-on-year from US$605m in the same period in 2019. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are expected to fall by up to 20% from US$113m.

In an operational update for April to July 2020 the group said that it ramped up cement operations in May 2020 following the relaxation of coronavirus-related lockdowns in most of its territories. It attributed strong growth in cement sales volumes in June and July 2020 due to a reduction in imports as well as pent-up demand. Similarly, sales volumes were strong outside of South Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe and Rwanda, and in the DRC to a lesser extent.

South Africa: PPC has said that it may issue a rights offer for US$68.7m-worth of shares in order to raise funds to ‘repay and restructure debt locally and in other African markets, and to refinance after the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.’ Pretoria News has reported that PPC has forecasted a 20% year-on-year drop in earnings in the year to 31 March 2020 due to ‘a slump in domestic demand and an influx of cheaper Chinese imports, even prior to lockdown.’

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim says that net sales in each of its five regions ‘returned to prior-year levels by the end of June 2020’ following the easing of coronavirus-related lockdowns. Its net sales fell by 10.8% year-on-year to Euro9.95bn in the first half of 2020 on a like-for-like basis due to the ‘severe’ impact of the lockdowns on construction sites in several of its main operating countries. It also blamed negative currency effects for an additional fall in sales. Its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) dropped by 22% to Euro1.11bn. Its net debt decreased by 15.8% to Euro9.91bn from Euro11.8bn. Cement sales volumes fell by 13.1% to 87.2Mt, aggregates by 6% to 114Mt and ready-mix concrete (RMC) by 18.6% to 19.2Mm3.

Group chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said, “Our half-year results demonstrate the great resilience of our business. I’m encouraged by our team’s agility to weather the storm with the rapid execution of our ‘Health, Cost & Cash’ action plan, effectively driving cost savings ahead of expectations, improving net working capital and delivering record free cash flow.” He added, “The peak of the crisis is behind us. We expect a solid second half of the year based on June’s full recovery, the trend of our order book and upcoming government stimulus packages.”

By region the group noted the most severe coronavirus-related disruption in Asia-Pacific despite China delivering a full recovery and growing sales volumes by the end of the second quarter. In Europe lockdowns in the UK and France had a particular impact and it said that, “volumes suggest a V-shaped recovery in June 2020 for the majority of markets, except in the UK.” Significant impacts were noted in Ecuador, Colombia and El Salvador in Latin America. Sales volumes declined in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and South Africa in the group’s Middle East Africa region but Nigeria delivered a ‘resilient’ performance. Finally, North America was the groups best performing region with slight dips in cement and aggregate sales volumes but a rise in RMX and rising recurring EBIT. This was attributed to, “fast and effective cost management in the US.”

Nigeria: Dangote Cement recorded a net profit of US$422m in the first half of 2020, up by 5.8% year-on-year from US$308m in the first half of 2019. Net sales were US$1.23bn, up by 2% from US$1.21bn. Nigerian sales made up 70% of the total at US$861m, up by 1.2% from US$850m.

The company said, “Most Covid-19 lockdown measures started at the end of March 2020 and peaked in April 2020. The response by the authorities varied in nature from specific temporary restrictions in some countries to a complete temporary lockdown for non-essential businesses. Our operations in South Africa, Congo and Ghana were shut down due to full or partial lockdown in most of April 2020. By early May 2020, lockdown had eased, and all our businesses were operational.”

Regarding its Nigerian operations, it said, “Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states locked down from 31 March 2020 to 4 May 2020. As a result, April 2020 volumes were heavily impacted and 28% lower than in April 2019. Other states joined with complete or partial lockdown during the month.” It estimated that a recession would strike the economy before 31 December 2020, compounded by the Covid-19 outbreak and a first-half global oil price slump.