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Johannesburg - Omnia Holdings [JSE:OMN] is placing its money on Africa not only for undiscovered metals and minerals but agriculture too, said CEO Rod Humphris, after the group recorded strong full-year results.
“We’re delighted with our strong set of results,” he told Fin24.
Watch the full interview:
Omnia reported that revenue increased 21% to R16 259m and operating profit increased 15% to R1 416m for the 2013 financial year ending March.
Gross profit was 17.6% higher at R3.612m, 22.2% of revenue. A gain of R52m was made on the disposal of Omnia’s interest in the Nalco Africa associate.
It said profit for the year was impacted by the abnormally high expense in respect of the long-term incentive plans of R200m, significantly up on the R73m of the prior year.
Distribution overheads also rose due to higher volumes in the mining and agriculture divisions.
Basic earnings per share increased 12.3% to 1 496 cents per share and the fully diluted basic earnings per share rose to 1 344 cents per share.
Humphris said the group’s mining, agriculture and chemical units drove a strong sales performance during the year, but that more importantly it also marks the end to its five year scheme.
“I think more importantly for us, this is the end of our five year scheme in which we were set a target by our shareholders to achieve 8% real growth.
“We more than exceeded the 8% and have achieved a 10.3% real growth in earnings,” he said.
Looking ahead, Humphris said the group is well positioned in Africa. “We have a strong business in many of the essential businesses of Africa.”
“A lot more minerals need to be mined and of course Africa still remains a treasure trove of undiscovered metals and minerals.”
Humphris is equally optimistic about agriculture.
“Well the world is going to need a lot more food and Africa is certainly the place where we can see there is a lot more arable land available with the potential to grow crops for the entire world, never mind just the African continent.”
He said that chemicals are still very much in a tough space.
“We’re working on it, we’ve done some restructuring this last year and we are still having a good grip on expanses there and we’re hopeful that with the mining sector’s problems perhaps over, that manufacturing here in South Africa will start to respond to more positive dynamics,” concluded Humphris.
- Fin24
“We’re delighted with our strong set of results,” he told Fin24.
Watch the full interview:
Omnia reported that revenue increased 21% to R16 259m and operating profit increased 15% to R1 416m for the 2013 financial year ending March.
Gross profit was 17.6% higher at R3.612m, 22.2% of revenue. A gain of R52m was made on the disposal of Omnia’s interest in the Nalco Africa associate.
It said profit for the year was impacted by the abnormally high expense in respect of the long-term incentive plans of R200m, significantly up on the R73m of the prior year.
Distribution overheads also rose due to higher volumes in the mining and agriculture divisions.
Basic earnings per share increased 12.3% to 1 496 cents per share and the fully diluted basic earnings per share rose to 1 344 cents per share.
Humphris said the group’s mining, agriculture and chemical units drove a strong sales performance during the year, but that more importantly it also marks the end to its five year scheme.
“I think more importantly for us, this is the end of our five year scheme in which we were set a target by our shareholders to achieve 8% real growth.
“We more than exceeded the 8% and have achieved a 10.3% real growth in earnings,” he said.
Looking ahead, Humphris said the group is well positioned in Africa. “We have a strong business in many of the essential businesses of Africa.”
“A lot more minerals need to be mined and of course Africa still remains a treasure trove of undiscovered metals and minerals.”
Humphris is equally optimistic about agriculture.
“Well the world is going to need a lot more food and Africa is certainly the place where we can see there is a lot more arable land available with the potential to grow crops for the entire world, never mind just the African continent.”
He said that chemicals are still very much in a tough space.
“We’re working on it, we’ve done some restructuring this last year and we are still having a good grip on expanses there and we’re hopeful that with the mining sector’s problems perhaps over, that manufacturing here in South Africa will start to respond to more positive dynamics,” concluded Humphris.
- Fin24
