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Penelope Mashego
Construction and mining company Afrimat says it expects profits to improve following year-on-year growth in its bulk commodities segment, as well as the return to profitability of its construction material minerals segment.
The Cape Town-headquartered company produces construction materials like bricks, blocks and pavers, readymix concrete, industrial minerals and iron ore. It also provides mining contracting services such as screening, drilling and blasting.
Afrimat will at the end of October release its interim results for the six months ended in 31 August 2020. In a trading update on Wednesday, it said it anticipates that its profit before interest and tax to increase between 10% and 15%.
Earnings per share will likely increase to between 183.5 and 192.7 cents, up from 183.5 cents in the six months ended in August 31, 2019. It expects headline earnings per share to be 191 cents, from 181.9 cents in the same reporting period.
The group’s share price rose more than 2% after it released the trading update.
Earlier this week Afrimat said it had applied to the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to have Nkomati Anthracite, which mines hard coal, placed under business rescue. The construction and mining company has a 27.7% stake in Unicorn Capital Partners (UCP), a mining investment company which owns 60% of Nkomati’ issued shares.
Afrimat had provided Nkomati with unsecured working capital funding for April to July following a request by UCP. However Nkomati, which is struggling financially due to Covid-19, has not been able to settle the loans. Afrimat moved to have it placed under business rescue to avoid it being liquidated.
The construction and mining company is also in the process of acquiring the rest of UCP.
Bongani Ndlovu