eBusiness Weekly
Ishemunyoro Chingwere Business Reporter
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed cement producer Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) says its earnings for the nine months to 31 March 2020 will be at least 20 percent lower than prior year comparative.
The decline is as a result of strict lockdown measures implemented in the cement maker’s countries of operation in the first quarter of the year.
In a trading update to the market, PPC said basic earnings and headline earnings per share is expected to decrease by more than 20 percent.
The movements come after taking into account impairments of property, plant and equipment, expected credit losses and other fair value adjustments.
“Basic earnings and headline earnings per share is expected to decrease by more than 20 percent compared with the 16 cents per share and the 20 cents per share achieved respectively for the prior comparable period ended 31 March 2019,” said PPC.
The company expects that the general economic environment and the Covid-19 pandemic will have a material impact on these adjustments, which are being finalised.
Detailed financial results for the year ended March 2020 are expected around 31 August 2020.
However, volumes have started to pick up as different jurisdictions implement varying exemption strategies in order to allow economies to function.
The company said the period May to June 2020 benefited from revised lockdown measures with demand for cement picking up.
Despite the relative increase, the volumes were still below the numbers achieved in the same period last year.
In South Africa for example, cement sales volumes were still around 30 to 35 percent below May 2019.
In PPC International, which includes Zimbabwe, the May cement sales volumes were less than 5 percent below the same period in 2019, mainly driven by strong sales volumes in Rwanda.
