COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Tiger Brands passes on some costsSouth Africa’s largest food producer, Tiger Brands, increased selling prices by 11% with minimal full-year volume declines, but this was not enough to prevent overall margin pressure. The company, which reported full year results to end September on Friday, also experienced relatively strong topline growth of 10% to R37.4 billion, but said that group operating income had declined 9% to R3.1 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) fell 2% to 1725c, but headline earnings per share were up 2% to 1735c. It also increased its final dividend 3% to 671c. Tiger, which owns brands such as Koo baked beans, All Gold tomato sauce and Albany bread, said its trading environment had been marked by high food inflation, as well as cash-strapped consumers trading out of premium products, as well as rand deprecation and unreliable electricity supply.Its overall margins declined by 2%, but its gross margin fell to 27.7% from 30.3% because of the "ongoing challenges of fully recovering input costs" persisting into the second half.While its export business saw volume increases, this was offset by declines in its domestic business, with Tiger attributing this mainly to its milling and banking, groceries, baby, and deciduous fruit businesses. It did, however, experience good volume growth in rice, beverages, home and personal care.-Fin24Spar has taken its 'medicine'It will take two years for the JSE-listed retailer Spar to return to its previous levels of profitability and growth, its new CEO Angelo Swartz says.Swartz, who has been in the hot seat for 60 days after working for the retailer for 16 years, said he believed the company, which has suffered large losses due to the implementation of a new software system as well as problems in its Polish business, was now at the "tail end of the worst of things"."Our plan is to recover to a 3% earnings before interest and tax (ebit) margin in the next 24 months, from about 1.3% currently for SA, including some non-recurring items. It is going to be a staged recovery. We will make a strong recovery in the year ahead, but returning to what investors have been used to will take about 24 months."Swartz also said the group had a plan in place to achieve these ambitions and was "very confident" in the South African management team's ability to deliver on it."We definitely think we've taken the medicine that we've needed to and that we are set up to recover strongly," he said.Swartz was speaking after the release of full-year results to end September 2023 that saw Spar scrapping its final dividend after the disastrous implementation of a new SAP software system at its KwaZulu-Natal distribution centre. But Swartz said the company felt it had "got the better of" the IT problems, with the system now stable. –Fin24Implats to restart platinum mineImpala Platinum will resume production at its Rustenburg operations, after the company suspended activity earlier in the week following an accident that killed 12 employees.The deep-level shaft in which a cage hoisting miners to the surface suddenly plunged on 27 November will remain closed "while internal investigations and inquiries" are completed, the Johannesburg-listed miner, known as Implats, said in a statement on Thursday.Production at the rest of the nine shafts will restart on 30 November after a period for mourning and checking the other elevators at the complex, it said.Implats' Rustenburg operations – which take place at an average depth of 870m underground – account for more than a third of the company’s output of platinum group metals. The firm recently acquired control of Royal Bafokeng Platinum in order to extend the life of its adjacent Rustenburg mines, from which Implats has been producing metal for more than five decades.An employee at Rustenburg, who had been hospitalized along with 74 colleagues after the accident, died on Wednesday, bringing the total fatalities caused by the incident to 12, Implats said.-Fin24Naspers prepares for battle against AmazonGlobal consumer internet and tech group Naspers says it's been investing to ensure SA's largest ecommerce retailer Takealot can defend its turf against US giant Amazon.Naspers and its subsidiary Prosus released results for the six months to end-September, and confirmed that its consumer internet businesses will break even six months earlier than previously expected.It now expects to do so by the end of its current financial year, with its consolidated ecommerce trading loss narrowing 85% to $38 million (R711 million) in its six months to end-September. Both Brazil's iFood and its classifieds business, which is a market leader in many Eastern European countries, doubled their trading profit.Takealot – which also includes Mr D and Superbalist – grew its revenue by 9% in rand, and also managed to cut its trading loss by 85% in dollar terms.Naspers SA CEO Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa said both Takealot and Mr D had been performing well, with the latter growing its revenue by 11% in rand. Takealot now has almost 11 000 third-party sellers on its platforms.With Amazon set to launch in SA in 2024, Mahanyele-Dabengwa stressed the importance of having local knowledge of the market and said the group had received financial support to stand its ground.-Fin24Lewis counts the cost of port and rail woesShares in Lewis Group surged almost 14% as the JSE-listed furniture group managed to grow credit sales by almost a fifth while maintaining a healthy debtor’s book in half-year results released last week.The company - which owns brands such as Beares and Best Home & Electric - also managed to lift profit margins and grow revenues, which was no mean feat considering the difficult trading environment caused by Transnet’s port and rail woes.As Lewis CEO Johan Enslin put it, things have gone from "bad to really worse over the past six months" on the logistics side. The company, for instance, now finds itself in the unfortunate position of having to transport about 86% of its goods by road from Durban to Johannesburg at a great expense. Prior to Covid-19, only about 20% was hauled on the roads. At the same time, Lewis was sitting with 290 containers stuck at sea as port congestion in Durban continues unabated. The value of the goods was R230 million. Nevertheless, the strong numbers from the company, particularly its credit sales and health of its debtors' book, were welcomed by the market with shares in Lewis up 13.9% to R44.99 in morning trading. By midday, they had pulled back somewhat to trade about 7.57% higher at R42.49. Enslin said that while the price movement was on low volumes, the group was thankful for "every bit of a pick-up that we can get" as the share is trading at such low levels.-Fin24Tongaat creditors to make a choice The business rescue practitioners of Tongaat Hulett have published two amended rescue plans for the distressed sugar producer, based on bids by rival buyers, to be voted on by creditors in early December.The one plan focuses on Tongaat being acquired by the Vision consortium, tied to mogul Robert Gumede, with companies Terris, Guma, Remoggoa, which are registered in Mauritius, and Almoiz, which is registered in the United Arab Emirates. The second plan sets out the acquisition by Mozambican conglomerate RGS Group, through its South African subsidiary RGS Bidco.While the RGS plan involves the group acquiring Tongaat’s R7.7 billion in debt, and converting that into equity, Vision had already made moves to buy the debt. The Vision rescue plan states that the consortium’s "acquisition is anticipated to have been completed by the date of the [creditors] meeting". City Press reported earlier in November that a deal was signed between the lenders and what is now called Vision. The business rescue practitioners subsequently confirmed to News24 they have been notified formally about a proposed sale of the company's debt to the consortium.The vote will be held through an online meeting on Friday 8 December. In order to be adopted, either of the plans must be supported by the holders of more than 75% of the creditor's voting interests. As of the initial plan, secured creditors held 94% of the voting rights.-Fin24

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