Cash pile puts Astral in position to swoop on opportunities
Company wants to boost production, but poultry sector offers slim pickings for acquisitions and joint ventures
Astral Foods, the "big bird" of the JSE’s poultry sector, is cash flush and perched to swoop on new opportunities after a resurgent performance in the second half of the financial year ended-September 2017. Results released on Monday show headline earnings almost doubled to R735m, or 1,899c per share, with the poultry segment’s margins fattened up to 6.4%. More impressive was that cash generated from operations surged 172% to R1.36bn, allowing the company to repay its long-term structured debt in full and leaving a positive net cash balance of R553m. Astral declared a bumper final dividend of 875c per share, bringing the full-year payout to 1,055c per share and at a 1.8 times earnings cover.
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