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SA’s biggest cement producer was meant to have reported its results for the year ended March 31, 2020 by Wednesday. PPC now says the results will be ready next week, citing the impact of Covid-19, “complexities” in concluding its year-end audit, the impact of an ongoing restructuring and refinancing process, as the need to fix additional accounting errors.
In a trading update yesterday, the company said that the errors relate to its operations in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It has moved a R146 million impairment on its investment in its Habesha Cement business in Ethiopia to the 2018 financial year, instead of 2019. The group said it was an error to not have applied the new International Financial Reporting Standards in Ethiopia. Correcting the error meant moving the impairment to its 2018 financials.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, PPC said it had incorrectly applied a formula for establishing the carrying value of the put option of its operations in the country. A put option is a contract that enables its holder to sell an asset at an agreed price before a certain date.
The group’s error meant that its carrying value of the put option contract it entered into with an international development finance institution was R251 million, and not R274 million as it has previously reported. The group also uncovered more errors in its non-controlling interests, which it said it would investigate.
PPC also said its revenue for the year had decreased by almost 5 percent to R10,4 billion, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation fell by about 16 percent to R1,9 billion. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter