CHRIS GILMOUR: All in place for Afrimat’s sustained future growth
Afrimat has cleverly used the past year’s very high iron ore price to cut debt and make more acquisitions
At the Afrimat online interim results presentation last week, I counted 128 participants. That is quite incredible for a medium capitalisation company (R7.1bn market cap) and reflects the intense interest that this company has generated over the past few years in terms of its superlative earnings and dividend growth. It has a loyal following both from retail and institutional investors and even though the extraordinary growth rates of the past year are unlikely to be repeated any time soon, one can reasonably expect well above average growth out of Afrimat for the foreseeable future.
The results were outstanding. Operating profit increased 65% to R582.8m and the group operating margin rose from 22.7% to 24.1%. Bulk Commodities’ operating profit margin, though still very high at 37.9%, was squeezed from the previous comparable period’s 48.8% due to the start-up costs of Nkomati Anthracite. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) rose 60.5% to 295.1c and a 40c per share interim divid...
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