Johannesburg – The Bidvest Group has reported a 6.1% year-on-year rise in profit for the six months that ended December 31, said the company.
Profit was lifted by the contribution from PHS, the UK-based hygiene company bought in December 2019. It was also boosted by higher demand for hygiene and facility services, DIY products and bulk commodity services.
Bidvest had gone through a portfolio clean-up just before the pandemic struck Africa’s most industrialised economy – its primary market. The company bundled its food services business, booked impairment costs in an airline and disposed of its vehicle transport services.
Its normalised headline earnings per share (HEPS), which does not include some items such as acquisition costs and Covid-19 related expenses, was 651,6 cents for the six months, up 6.1% from the corresponding period a year ago.
HEPS is the main profit measure for South African companies.
Its revenue for the period grew by 3.4% to R44.4 billion ($2.95 billion), said the company.
The company, which provides business-to-business solutions in cleaning, hygiene, travel, catering, freight, and logistics, declared an interim dividend of 290 cents per share, up 2.8%.
Bidvest said it has been able to bring most of its employees back to work after Covid-19 related lockdown measures were eased in South Africa, but estimates that the impact of the pandemic will continue.
“Looking ahead, it is likely that the economic downturn will persist with the pace of recovery remaining largely uncertain,” said the Chief executive Mpumi Madisa.
But with a learner structure of the group and scalable operating model, it is “well placed for growth”, she said.
