SOUTH AFRICA – Zeder Investments Ltd., the South African company that focuses on agri, food and beverage sectors said its financial results for the year ended 28 February 2018 was impacted by challenging macro conditions.
Most of its portfolio companies including Pioneer Foods, Capespan, Zaad and Agrivision Africa reported losses from the impact.
According to CEO Norman Celliers, many of these conditions, however, improved significantly during the latter part of the reporting period, boding well for a recovery of Zeder and its portfolio.
Fin24 reported Zeder’s recurring headline earnings per share, reflecting the sum of its effective interest in that of each of its underlying investments, decreased by 35.2% to 27.6 cents for the period under review.
However, decreases reported by the likes of Pioneer Foods, Capespan, Zaad and Agrivision Africa were offset by increases reported by Kaap Agri and Quantum Foods.
Being Zeder’s largest investment with a 53.9% share of its portfolio, Pioneer Foods reported a 50% decrease in adjusted headline earnings per share from continuing operations for the year ended 30 September 2017.
Capespan reported a decline of 27.6% in recurring headline earnings per share for its financial year ended 31 December 2017.
While Zaad’s recurring headline earnings per share declined 16.7% due to lower sales from its SA operations, Kaap Agri delivered encouraging results with headline earnings per share having increased by 17.9%.
Kaap Agri’s good improved results were based on its recent focus on adding non-agri income streams and improving efficiencies.
Agrivision Africa reported an US$4.58 million recurring headline loss while Quantum Foods reported a 74.0% increase in headline earnings per share for its financial year ended 30 September 2017.
The company said the results were anticipated for given the drought faced by the agri sector in the Western Cape and after-effects of El Nino in the northern part of the country.
“Yet, we are proud of the way the company performed under these circumstances. So far, our portfolio is OK due to irrigated sources of water, but we share everyone’s concerns about rain in the upcoming winter months,” said Celliers.
Despite of all these, the companies maintained conservative balance sheets, diversified income streams and good management teams, according to Celliers.
“Looking forward, our strategy is to recover the core business.
We would like to see our companies recover from the slightly weaker results and think we are well positioned to do that,” added Celliers.
