Latest news with #R1.7bn
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SPAR Group sees EPS dip despite steady H1 2025 revenue growth
Multinational South Africa-based retail chain SPAR Group's operational performance during the first half (H1) of fiscal 2025 (FY25) has shown mixed results across different regions, with headline earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations dipping slightly by 0.4% to 450.1 cents. Revenue from ongoing operations held steady at R66.1bn ($3.72bn), with gross profit climbing to R7.1bn. Operating profit experienced a modest rise of 1.6%, reaching R1.5bn, bolstered by enhanced cost management efforts. The group's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also saw an uptick of 1.7%, amounting to R1.7bn. SPAR Group made headway on its strategic objectives amidst a tough market environment, focusing on five critical areas: exiting Poland, restructuring debt within the group, conducting a strategic review of European operations, expanding the implementation of SAP [systems, application and data processing], and targeting an improvement in southern Africa EBIT margin to 3%, alongside achieving a leverage ratio between 1.5 and 2.0 times by fiscal year-end 2026. During the first half of 2025, the group achieved three of these goals: finalising the sale of SPAR Poland in January, completing debt restructuring in March, and announcing plans in May to divest its Swiss operations as well as AWG in the UK after thorough strategic evaluation and consideration of capital allocation priorities and long-term strategic direction. The group is in advanced negotiations with potential buyers for these businesses. SPAR Switzerland and AWG have been classified as discontinued operations, with post-tax losses including impairments amounting to R4.4bn. The board believes that the divestments are consistent with SPAR's strategy to concentrate on strengthening its core businesses in Southern Africa and Ireland. Cash generation from total operations significantly increased 50.1% to R1.9bn. In Southern Africa, the group's wholesale turnover increased 1.7%, with its grocery and liquor segments contributing to this growth. Retail revenue in the region also saw an increase of 1.9%. The SPAR2U app's delivery volumes surged 174%, demonstrating the brand's growing on-demand presence. Build it, the group's building materials retail brand, posted a sales increase of 4.1% with strong like-for-like retail growth. In Ireland, despite a marginal local currency revenue decrease, the gross margin benefited from a favourable product mix. The minimum wage increase, however, led to higher labour costs. No interim dividend has been declared for the period, with future considerations dependent on macroeconomic and operating conditions. Looking forward, SPAR Group is concentrating on margin improvement and operational execution in its core markets. In southern Africa, SPAR aims to enhance retail segments and operational efficiencies, with initiatives such as expanding on-demand services and increasing private label product penetration. In Ireland, SPAR Group subsidiary BWG Group, a food retail and wholesale distribution company, is focusing on growing its convenience retail brands and exploring new opportunities. "SPAR Group sees EPS dip despite steady H1 2025 revenue growth" was originally created and published by Retail Insight Network, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
TimesLIVE
16-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
US aid cuts leave food for millions mouldering in storage
Food rations that could supply 3.5-million people for a month are mouldering in warehouses around the world because of US aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation. The food stocks have been stuck inside four US government warehouses since the decision by President Donald Trump's administration in January to cut global aid programmes, according to three people who previously worked at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and two sources from other aid organisations. Some stocks due to expire as early as July are likely to be destroyed, either by incineration, using them as animal feed or disposing of them in other ways, two sources said. The warehouses, run by USAID's bureau for humanitarian assistance (BHA), contain between 60,000 to 66,000 metric tonnes of food, sourced from American farmers and manufacturers, the five people said. An undated inventory list for the warehouses, which are located in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai and Houston, stated they contained more than 66,000 tonnes of commodities, including high-energy biscuits, vegetable oil and fortified grains. The supplies are valued at more than $98m (R1.7bn), according to the document reviewed by Reuters, which was shared by an aid official and verified by a US government source as up to date. That food could feed more than a million people for three months, or the entire population of Gaza for a month-and-a-half, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from the World Food Programme. The UN body said one tonne of food — typically including cereals, pulses and oil — can meet the daily need of about 1,660 people. The dismantling of USAID and cuts to humanitarian aid spending by Trump come as global hunger levels are rising due to conflict and climate change, which are driving more people towards famine, undoing decades of progress. According to the World Food Programme, 343-million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9-million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine. Most are in Gaza and Sudan, but also in pockets of South Sudan, Haiti and Mali. A spokesperson for the US state department, which oversees USAID, said in response to detailed questions about the food stocks that it was working to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of aid programmes and their transfer by July as part of the USAID decommissioning process. 'USAID is continuously consulting with partners on where to best distribute commodities at USAID pre-positioning warehouses for use in emergency programmes ahead of their expiration dates,' the spokesperson said. SOME FOOD LIKELY TO BE DESTROYED Though the Trump administration has issued waivers for some humanitarian programmes, including in Gaza and Sudan, the cancellation of contracts and freezing of funds needed to pay suppliers, shippers and contractors has left food stocks stuck in the four warehouses, the sources said. A proposal to hand the stocks to aid organisations that can distribute them is on hold, according to the US source and two former USAID sources briefed on the proposal. The plan is awaiting approval from the US state department's office of foreign assistance, the two former USAID sources said. The office is headed by Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old former operative of Elon Musk's department of government efficiency (DOGE), who is overseeing the decommissioning of USAID. The office of foreign assistance, DOGE and Lewin did not respond to requests for comment. Nearly 500 tonnes of high-energy biscuits stored at a USAID warehouse in Dubai are due to expire in July, according to a former USAID official and an aid official familiar with the inventories. The biscuits could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month, according to Reuters calculations. The biscuits are likely to be destroyed or turned into animal feed, the former USAID official said, adding that in a typical year only about 20 tonnes of food might be disposed of in this way because of damage in transit or storage. Some of the stocks were previously intended for Gaza and famine-stricken Sudan, the former official said. The state department spokesperson did not directly respond to questions on how much of the food aid in storage was close to expiry and whether this would be destroyed. USAID plans to fire almost all its staff in two rounds on July 1 and September 2 as it prepares to shut down, according to a notification submitted to Congress in March. The two former USAID sources said many critical staff needed to manage the warehouses or move the supplies will depart in July. The US is the world's largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the UN. It disbursed $61bn (R1.1-trillion) in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data. US food aid includes ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) such as high-energy biscuits and Plumpy'Nut, a peanut-based paste. Navyn Salem, the founder of Edesia, a US-based manufacturer of Plumpy'Nut, said termination of transportation contracts by USAID had created a massive backlog that had forced the firm to hire an additional warehouse to store its own production. The resulting stockpile of 5,000 tonnes, worth $13m (R234.5m), could feed more than 484,000 children, she said. Salem said email exchanges with Lewin have left her 'hopeful' that a way will be found soon to get her product to desperate children who need it. The UN children's agency Unicef warned in late March that RUTF stocks were running short in 17 countries due to funding cuts, potentially forcing 2.4-million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition to go without the crucial supplies for the rest of the year. The four USAID warehouses contain most of the agency's pre-positioned food stockpiles. In normal times, these could be rapidly deployed to places such as Sudan, where 25- million people, half the country's population, face acute hunger. Jeanette Bailey, director of nutrition at the International Rescue Committee, which receives much of its funding from the US, said it was scaling back its programmes after the cuts. She said the impact of global shortages of therapeutic foods due to the disruption to US aid flows is difficult to measure, particularly in places where aid programmes no longer operate. 'What we do know, though, is that if a child is in an inpatient stabilisation centre and no longer able to access treatment, more than 60% of those children are at risk of dying very quickly,' she said. Action Against Hunger, a nonprofit that relied on the US for more than 30% of its global budget, said last month the US cuts had led to the deaths of at least six children at its programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo after it was forced to suspend admissions. The bureau for humanitarian affairs, which co-ordinates the US government's aid efforts overseas, was plunged into chaos by the Trump administration's cutbacks, the five sources said. The bureau's staff were among thousands of USAID employees put on administrative leave pending their terminations. While some staff were brought back to work until their severance dates, aid administration has not recovered. Three sources said the contract to maintain USAID warehouses in Durban, South Africa, had been cancelled, raising questions about future aid distribution. Reuters was unable to confirm that independently. Two former USAID officials said the Djibouti and Dubai facilities would be handed over to a team at the state department which has not yet been formed. The state department did not comment. A spokesperson for the World Food Programme, which relies heavily on US funding, declined to comment on the stranded food stocks. Asked if it was engaged in discussions to release them, the spokesperson said: 'We greatly appreciate the support from all our donors, including the US, and we will continue to work with partners to advocate for the needs of the most vulnerable in urgent need of life-saving assistance'.
TimesLIVE
08-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Mali pressed to pay 'enormous' debt for regional dam, document says
Mali owes more than $94m (R1.7bn) to the entity managing a dam which also provides power to Senegal and Mauritania, and the debt has become "a question of life and death" for its ability to continue operating, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The funding gap raises the spectre of more electricity supply problems in Mali, where outages in recent years have dented public support for the military government that took power following coups in 2020 and 2021. The Manantali Dam and power plant came online in 2002 and has an installed capacity of 200 megawatts. More than half of what it produces goes to Mali while Senegal gets 33% and Mauritania gets 15%. Mali currently owes "an enormous amount of more than 54-billion CFA francs [R1.69bn]" to SOGEM, the entity that manages Manantali and several other projects, according to an April 25 letter from SOGEM to the director-general of Energie du Mali, Mali's electric utility. "It is now a question of life or death for our installations and for SOGEM," reads the letter signed by SOGEM's director-general, Mohamed Mahmoud Sid'Elemine.
TimesLIVE
07-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
KZN education and health departments struggle with supplier payments as financial challenges mount
The KwaZulu-Natal Treasury says the provincial government will have to do 'business unusual' if it is to navigate its ongoing financial crisis. This comes as most of the departments, includingthe frontline departments of health and education, are falling behind in their financial commitments to service providers. This week, unpaid service providers staged sit-ins in the provincial offices of both departments in Pietermaritzburg as they sought answers. The provincial executive council met on Wednesday to discuss these and other governance and service delivery challenges. The education department confirmed that it owed 22% of its suppliers payments for the National Schools Nutrition Programme for March and April, while the health department owes R1.7bn to its service providers. Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka confirmed that the failure to make payments on time was mainly due to technical difficulties linked to the new financial system, a migration from BAS version 5 to BAS Version 6. That has since been resolved, and the department said it made the payment to the affected suppliers on Tuesday, which will reflect on Friday. However, he added that some of the suppliers were at fault for the payment delays through noncompliance with the submission standards. 'So far, we have paid all service providers that have complied with contracts in terms of submitting invoices with the supporting documents... We are certain that before May 10, as we're working with [National] Treasury, all the outstanding service providers that have submitted proper invoices will be paid.' Some of the invoices were submitted without signatures from the schools, which is required as proof that the correct items were submitted. As a result, there are service providers who have not been paid for October and November, but the department is working with them to resolve that, Hlomuka said. Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said the upgrade to the new payment system was a factor but admitted that their challenges centre mainly around the financial limitations, which meant they couldn't pay all the service providers on time in this financial year. She said they indicated as far back as November 2024 to both the provincial cabinet and the portfolio committee that they would not be able to pay all the service providers on time in this financial year because of the financial challenges facing the department. She said they presented a plan to negotiate with the bigger suppliers whose invoices exceed R500,000 a month to spread their payments over 60 days, instead of paying within 30 days 'Spreading the payment over 60 days doesn't mean you write off the debt, it means at some point you will have to pay that amount, and that point was April 1 when we were expecting our full allocation to come in.' 'As soon as we were able to get the allocation in April we started the process of paying the service providers, but we were not able to pay in the manner that we should have for the last three weeks because of challenges with BAS.' Finance MEC Francois Rodgers said the frontline departments have been the worst affected by budget cuts, which is why he tried to focus on them in his budget allocation. The new administration inherited budget cuts of R70bn over four years, which is almost 50% of their current allocation of R158bn. With economic growth projected at just over 1%, Rodgers said it will take a long time to reverse the situation if they don't change their approach to budgeting and spending. 'It's reprioritisation: while we're getting through this economic crises, we have to do business unusual when it comes to finance... We have to change (and) that is what we're going to do in 2026/27; our frontline departments must be our priority and then we have to look at the balance of the funding for the province,' he said. 'We've been given permission by National Treasury for a procurement system which is going to align the supply chain with BAS and payments and departments will no longer be able to procure if they don't have the cash to back it, which is also going to address some of the challenges that we have.' Premier Thami Ntuli said they have always been transparent with their financial limitations, and what is happening now is what their analysis and projections warned about, which they have communicated to the public.
TimesLIVE
07-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
KZN health department says it owes service providers R1.7bn
The KwaZulu-Natal department of health is in a shambles and owes service providers R1.7bn. This comes after the provincial department was in the news for alleged medicine shortages. On Monday scores of service providers embarked on a protest march demanding their money. Some said the department had not paid them for more than a year. They included SMMEs, which are — according to legislation — supposed to be paid within a month of rendering services. DA KZN spokesperson on health Dr Imran Keeka called for consequences. 'The DA notes with concern that businesses in KwaZulu-Natal are owed an estimated R1.7bn by the provincial department of health. The staggering sum is revealed in response to a DA written parliamentary question,' said Keeka. He said the reply further indicated that, of this, R1.33bn fell within the 60-day to 90-day payment period. There were 1,519 unpaid invoices in the over 90-day period, amounting to just more than R71m. 'The DA notes that KZN health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane-Mngadi, has always been open and forthright about her department's financial woes during portfolio committee meetings. However, such a situation — the nonpayment of suppliers on time — should not have arisen in the first place or to the point where they are affecting services., Keeka said the concern arising out of the reply was that it was very possible that small and medium sized companies in KwaZulu-Natal were the worst affected. 'Equally concerning is that the MEC and acting HOD intimated, during the same meetings, that some service providers, while paid, had not paid their staff. This had led to protests, in some instances implicating the department. However, what happens within companies once the department has concluded its business with them is beyond its control.' Keeka said the department had unfortunately adopted a 'take from Peter to pay Paul' approach in a bid to resolve some of the payment issues. 'This appears to have left some companies struggling more than others. Again, it particularly affects small businesses. Regrettably, this resulted in several suppliers gathering at the department's Pietermaritzburg head office on Monday, demanding payment.' Currently the Division of Revenue Bill, or the budget, as presented by finance minister Enoch Godongwana on March 12, is withdrawn, with provinces set to table their budgets within two weeks of May 21. Once the province's budget is tabled and certainty exists, it is expected that the situation may turn around. Keeka described the situation as dire and in need of urgent attention. The KZN health department communications unit did not respond to queries.
