Salient features
Trading profit grew by
19.8% to
R4.0 billion
Trading profit margin
improved 81bps to
9.2%
Operational cash
generated up 32.7%, to
R5.5 billion
Strong balance sheet
maintained with
1.1x net debt/EBITDA
- ROFE up to
24.8% Acquired UK's number 1
hygiene business, PHS, for
GBP495 million
Normalised HEPS of
610.9 cents
per share
Unchanged interim
dividend of
282 cents
per share
Introduction
Bidvest is a leading business-to-business services, trading and distribution group, operating through six divisions: Services, Freight, Branded Products, Commercial Products, Financial Services and Automotive. The Group owns a significant Bidvest occupied property portfolio. Bidvest strategically increased its stake in Adcock Ingram (“Adcock”) to 52.3%, resulting in it being consolidated from 1 August 2019 into Branded Products. Bidvest continues to hold non-core investments in, Comair (27.2%) and Mumbai International Airport (6.75%) (MIAL).
Highlights
Trading profit increased by 19.8% to R4.0 billion, off revenue growth of 9.2%, enhanced by the consolidation of Adcock.
During the six months to December 2019, Bidvest’s domestic operations held their own in a tough trading environment characterised by low business confidence and constrained consumer demand culminating in lower volumes. Offshore service businesses performed well. Our services businesses, comprising the Services, Freight and Financial Services divisions, grew trading profit by 6.5%.