The group has reported a net profit of R189 million following the disposal of PPC Lime and Botswana Aggregates.
PPC’s capital restructuring and refinance project has proven a success after the group reported a net profit of R189 million following the disposal of PPC Lime and PPC Botswana Aggregates.
“The capital restructuring is nearing completion and we have successfully removed the need for an equity capital raise,” says PPC CFO Brenda Berlin. “We continue to deliver on our promise of degearing the balance sheet and have used the proceeds from the sale of PPC Lime and Botswana to reduce debt further after the reporting period.”
PPC’s continued efforts to degear the group balance sheet saw it settling a further R309 million in debt.
As a result of the capital restructuring and refinancing project, PPC Barnet continues to be reported as a discontinued operation.
The group said that it has made significant progress in achieving its strategic objectives, which saw it capture further volume growth, improve cost competitiveness and generate strong cash flows, reporting revenue increase by 20 percent to R5.1 billion for the six months ended 30 September.
According to PPC, this revenue largely benefited from a 12 percent increase in cement sales columns and the positive impact of hyperinflation on PPC Zimbabwe’s financials. Cost of sales increased by 24 percent to R4 billion when taking this hyperinflation into account.
South Africa and Botswana Cement experienced continued strong retail demand, which saw cement sales volumes increase by 12 percent to 15 percent, and by three percent to six percent relative to 2019.
Sales to the retail and rural segments continued to outpace other segments of the market. In line with the biannual price review, selling prices were raised to partially offset input cost inflation and an increase of four percent to eight percent was realised for the period.
Excluding PPC Zimbabwe, revenue grew 12 percent relative to 2019, seven percent of which shows an improvement on pre-Covid-19 levels.
Group earnings before Ebitda ended the period 13 percent higher at R945 million, while group operating profit increased by 10 percent to R633 million.
Taking fair value adjustments, profits, disposals and hyperinflation into account, group headline earnings increased to R786 million and group basic headline earnings per share rose by 83 percent to 55 cents.
Looking ahead, PPC’s focus is on optimising operational efficiencies to mitigate increasing input cost pressures and reducing its environmental footprint while further enhancing its financial resilience.
