Padenga buoyant despite loss

for the five-month period to December 31, 2010.
Padenga was unbundled from the Niloticus division of Innscor Africa Ltd and listed separately on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in December last year.
The company recorded an operating loss before depreciation, amortisation, fair value adjustments and interest of US$409 578 and a loss before tax of US$2 508 759 during the period under review. The results were influenced by escalation in the cost of several inputs in particular soya and diesel in response to shocks in the global environment, which put pressure on the company’s finances.
Additional pressure resulted from the prevailing liquidity constraints during the period under review, a factor that drove up the firm’s borrowing costs at a time when average interest rate on borrowings were at 16 percent per annum.
Management has however, attributed the loss to the seasonal nature of the business in which culling and turnover are recorded in the second half of the fiscal year.
“These results reported are in line with budget and the company is still expecting to attain the full year profit targets set,” reported Padenga management. Padenga reports that culling commenced in January, and expects that the annual off-take target of 45 305 skins is achievable.
Culling is the process of removing animals from a group based on specific criteria and is done in order either to reinforce certain desirable characteristics or to remove certain undesirable characteristics from the group.
In terms of the company’s operations during the period, a total of 165 609 animals were on the ground as at the end of December, while egg collection and incubation yielded a total of 45 887 new hatchlings.
Padenga has a breeder herd of 5 000 crocodiles, and has set a target of self-sufficiency in egg production within the next three years.
The company runs and owns Kariba, Ume and Nyanyana Crocodile Farms. The farms, with installed capacity to produce 20 000 skins annually, have been scaled down to 14 000 skins each year as premium quality skins are expected from the destocking exercise.
Padenga’s major customers include TCIM, a French tannery and Heng Long Leather, a tannery based in Singapore.