The end of the week is usually a bit quieter for company announcements. This certainly wasn't the case yesterday!
Resilient released a trading statement noting an expected distribution for the year of R4.28 per share, which is a yield of 7.7%. Resilient managed to pay dividends throughout the pandemic but the share price is still 15% lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Metair has reported a strong recovery in earnings although the share price fell -3.4% yesterday as part of a broader market sell-off. The group has generated R701m EBITDA in the six months to June 2021, which is almost as high as the full year 2020 number (R891m). Metair is one of the few JSE-listed stocks currently trading above pre-pandemic levels.
African Rainbow Minerals reported full year HEPS between R65,55 and R67,83 per share. Iron or e prices have really come under pressure, which contributed to the company closing 4.6% lower yesterday at R276.43 per share.
Grindrod Shipping has been one of the biggest winners this year, buoyed by exceptionally high shipping rates. While that pun was intended, I'm not sure this global shipping environment was intended by anyone. The rates are a result of a supply crunch in global shipping, with Grindrod Shipping reporting a positive swing of over $27m in headline earnings (the company reports in USD).
On a good day for gold miners, Gold Fields tried to atone for AngloGold's sector sins by releasing solid numbers. Gold production increased slightly although total costs did as well. Net debt to EBITDA has reduced considerably (from 0.84 to 0.49) and attributable HEPS has more than doubled in the interim period to June 2021. An interim dividend of R2.10 has been declared, which is an interim yield of 1.6%. I don't annualise this num ber as the gold price is anyone's guess going forward.
In the small cap space, there was a trading statement from Transpaco which reported estimated growth in HEPS of between 18.1% and 24.1%. That sent the share price up nearly 15% on a day that was horrible for most of the rest of the market. ARB Holdings only increased 1.3% on the day but a dividend of 42.5 cents per share on a share price of R5.50 is a yield of 7.7%, which isn't shabby from a small industrials group!
Bidcorp broke the unfortunate news of fraud in their Chinese business, with a negative impact of R95m in the prior year and R119m in the current year. Nevertheless, HEPS for the year to June 2021 will be 21% higher than the comparable year, as the food service industry has started recovering.
The lead story this morning is the Standard Bank result, which displays many of the trends seen in other banking earnings. There's a raft of DealMakers w ork as well, as is customary on a Friday.
Have a restful and safe weekend!
The Finance Ghost
