Johannesburg - Black economic empowerment (BEE) group Sekunjalo (SKJ) on Tuesday reported a headline loss per share of 3.31 cents for the six months ended February 28 after a restated loss of 6.2c a year ago.
On Monday the company issued a trading statement indicating that the headline loss per share was expected at 3.31c, resulting in the share price closing down 5.6% or 5c at 85c. At one stage on Monday the share price was down 17% or 15c.
Sekunjalo has interests in fishing, healthcare, and financial services, amongst others.
Revenue rose to R175m from a previous R161.3m, while operating loss was R16.7m from a loss of R20.1m before.
Attributable loss was R9.8m after a loss of R14.5m a year ago.
The company said the results are in line with expectations and display significant improvements when compared with the same period of the previous financial year.
All operating divisions, apart from healthcare, performed to
budget and are on track to achieve the year-end projections.
Profits in fishing continued to be affected by the continued
strengthening of the rand, restructuring costs and the pelagic season which again got off to a late start due to the delay in the long term fishing rights process and environmental factors.
The results were again impacted upon by the inherent cyclical nature associated with both the healthcare and the fishing industries, resulting in an operating loss.
This "seasonal operating loss" is significantly lower than
the previous comparative period, it said.
The company said the past six months' results do not necessarily
indicate the expected full year earnings. Sekunjalo expects earnings for the year ending August 31 2006 will be significantly improved compared to that of the prior
comparative period.
This expected improved performance for the 2006 financial
year will be as a result of a focus on organic growth, income of newly acquired businesses as well as the upside of the fishing and healthcare industries that comes through in the second six months of the financial year, it said.
No dividends were declared and it is not the group's intention that any dividends will be declared or paid in the foreseeable future.
The directors believe Sekunjalo is poised to deliver significant returns on investment, and they believe the capital in the company is best deployed internally.
Looking ahead, Sekunjalo is confident in its ability to show steady growth in NAV and profitability. This is underscored by the fact that operating profits in a number of the new operations are already showing encouraging growth.
Although half-year results are still depressed by the seasonality of our fishing business the company is pleased that overall results show a significantly improved performance over the same period historically, it said.