CA Sales Holdings on a mission in Africa

CA SALES Holdings has set its sights on expanding through a mixture of growing its principal and customer networks and value-adding acquisitions to widen its footprint further across the African continent.

The group said this after reporting its maiden results for the year to the end of December yesterday.

CA Sales Holdings believes it is well positioned, with its strong balance sheet and diverse geographical presence across southern Africa, to take advantage of any opportunities that might arise.

The company is a sales and distribution services provider for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in sub-Saharan Africa.

The company made its debut on the Botswana Stock Exchange and on the South African 4 Africa Exchange (4AX) in November.

In its maiden results, the group reported a 26.5 percent increase in headline earnings per share (Heps) to 33.2 cents a share, up from 26.2c.

CA Sales has a diverse geographical presence across southern Africa, including Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Headline earnings increased by 28.6 percent to R136.8 million, while revenue increase by 17 percent to R4.7 billion. Total assets increase by 17.6 percent to R2.1bn.

The group declared a dividend of 5.99c a share, representing an increase of 14 percent compared with 5.25c a share to last year.

Chief executive Frans Britz said: “All major operations exceeded expectations during the period under review. The distributor footprint was also further expanded into Zambia, opening a new territory for the group. In addition, acquisitions in the marketing and promotions industry expanded our current service offering.”

He added that the pleasing maiden results as a listed entity provided it with a solid foundation from which to look to the future with confidence. The group made two acquisitions during the period.

Its subsidiary Pack ’n Snack Investment Holdings acquired 51 percent of the share capital of Surapax for R15.5m in September.

The group is now expected to increase its presence in the hardware sector. Goodwill of R12.5m arose from the acquisition.

In April, CA Sales Investments, a subsidiary of CA Sales, acquired 90 percent of the share capital of Expo Africa group for R23.7m.

The group said goodwill of R20.1m arose from the acquisition.