South Africa: Remgro Earnings Plummet

Source from:  Business Day 12/02/2009

JSE-listed investment company Remgro yesterday said net profit for the six months to September fell as its interests in financial services, mining and industrial businesses were hit by the economic downturn. The Rupert family's Stellenbosch-based industrial arm reported a 37,1% drop in headline earnings per share from continuing operations to 275,3c. Headline earnings slid to R1,3bn from R2bn. "We have had a tough six months," said Remgro CEO Thys Visser. Even after stripping out earnings from the stake it held in British American Tobacco (BAT) - Remgro and Rupert-controlled Richemont distributed their 30% holding in BAT last year to shareholders -- earnings have fallen. Headline earnings in financial services -- the group's holdings in FirstRand and RMB Holdings - fell 34,9% to R517m from R792m in the same period a year earlier as bad debts in retail lending grew. Remgro's industrial holdings remained the single largest contributor to earnings, but these fell 12% to R744m from R847m a year earlier. The company's stake in oil company Total SA yielded a loss of R15m from a profit of R288m, as fuel prices dropped back from their high levels of a year earlier. Earnings from the company's stakes in liquor company Distell and household products maker Unilever both increased. The greatest decline came in earnings from the company's mining interests. Mining earnings slumped more than 80% to R56m from R296m. Enditem