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Johannesburg - South Africa will continue to be the largest driver of Vunani's [JSE:VUN] earnings, but a strong push into Africa will in the next three years contribute about a quarter to the firm's earnings, said CEO Ethan Dube in a video interview with Fin24.
He was commenting after the majority black owned and managed financial services company released half year results this week which showed profit for the six months to end June of R81.6m.
This was achieved in tough trading conditions, influenced mostly by rising global geopolitical tension and deteriorating domestic economic conditions.
Revenue from continuing operations increased by 16% to R54m (2013: R46.3m), while net finance costs were down from R3.6m in the comparable period last year to a net finance income of R2.1m.
Vunani also reported basic earnings per share of 68.5c per share compared to basic earnings per share of 9.3c in June 2013.
Dube said the company's strategy going forward is not to invest in businesses in which they don't have influence.
Although they scaled down on property, Dube said the firm's intention remains to get into property. "We did very well, we grew that business from nothing, and we sold it off at the beginning of this year."
Net asset value per share increased to 238.9c per share at June 30 from 203.5c per share at December 31 2013.
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According to Dube, Vunani's strategy is to build a diversified, Pan African financial services business, and to this end the firm in the last six months developed an equity relationship with BGL bank, one of Africa's leading Investment Banking and Investment Groups headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Vunani also established good relationships in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Ghana and "our strategy is really to assist South African companies that want to get into those countries", Dube said.
"Our strategy is not to introduce them and get fees, but to work with them in situations where they want to build businesses on the ground."
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- Fin24
