RES Corp forecasts profit of E721m

MBABANE – The Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation’s (RES Corp) unaudited consolidated forecasted profit before tax for the year ended March 31, 2024, is reportedly approximately E721 million.

This is according to the company¶s declaration of a final dividends notice issued last week.

,n the notice, the company declared a final dividend of 146.6 cents per share in the currency of Eswatini for the year to March 31, 2024.

The declared dividends will be payable to shareholders registered in the books of the company at the close of business on May 10, 2024.

,t was further indicated that the transfer books and register of mem

bers will be closed from May 11 to May 17, 2024, both days include, for the purpose of determining those shareholders to whom the dividends shall be paid. Payment of the dividends is expected to be posted on or about June 21, 2024.

Deducted

Normal and withholding tax will be deducted from dividends paid to local shareholders and non-resident shareholders respectively where applicable.

RES have five shareholders which are Tibiyo Taka Ngwane with 53.1 per cent shares, RCL Foods with 29.1 per cent, Nigerian Government with 10 per cent shares, Eswatini Government with 6.5 shares and individuals who own 1.3 shares.

The company¶s 2023 integrated report indicated that RES Corp recorded a profit before tax of E242 million.

The company¶s financial performance for the 2022/23 financial year was significantly lower than the previous year, with total comprehensive income shedding 41 per cent and dropping to E179 million (2022 303 million). Nevertheless, the business continued to add value to its shareholders, with a total dividend declaration of 53.5 cents per share (2022 192.9 cents per share).

Implementation

The company had set its priorities for 2023/24 which included bringing to fruition the consolidation of two of the company¶s statutory companies, Mhlume Sugar Company and Simunye Sugar Estate into one single entity to achieve efficiencies across multiple spectrums of the business.

The company also aimed to embrace the full implementation of the new S/4Hana Public Cloud-based ERP system and adopt SAP best practices for the benefit of the business.

For ESG Reporting, RES Corp aimed to optimise data collection and interpretation to enable the assessment of RES¶s key impacts as per the requirements of double materiality.