Imperial rolls with the punches
Noncore assets sales balanced by acquisitions focusing on main strengths in logistics and automotive markets
Imperial Holdings says deteriorating trading conditions, currency volatility and its ambitious restructuring programme buffeted the group in the year to June, but it still achieved all its strategic, operational and financial objectives announced at the start of financial 2017. Group revenue grew a sluggish 1% to a record R119.5bn, with operating profit up 2% to a record R6.5bn, even as profit before tax slumped 18% on foreign exchange losses of R619m, compared with losses of R72m in 2016. Substantial sales of non-core assets in recent years were balanced by acquisitions that focused on the group’s main strengths in logistics and automotive markets. “It has been an incredible amount of work, but we are at the end of that and now we get down and run hard,” CEO Mark Lamberti said on Tuesday. “This set of results is not about the numbers — it is about the reorganisation of a massive group coming to fruition,” he said.
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