Omnia to spur growth with new acquisitions

CHEMICALS maker Omnia Holdings will look at acquisitions and new African markets as it seeks to revive growth hit by a manufacturing slowdown, it said yesterday.

Full-year group profit dropped 7%, with headline earnings per share (EPS), the main profit measure in South Africa that strips out certain one-off items, down to R8.81 for the year ended March 31.

The results sent Omnia’s shares tumbling nearly 9% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to R132 by 1pm yesterday.

Omnia, which has divisions in agriculture, mining and chemicals, has suffered a slump in chemicals sales volumes as South Africa’s economy slid into recession for the first time since 2009 and its manufacturing and mining sectors contracted. That has prompted it to look for new growth areas to boost its chemicals division.

The company said it would look at markets outside South Africa and further acquisitions to strengthen its chemicals business, which has a distribution market throughout South Africa, southern and East Africa.

“We are primarily interested in African markets and it’s an area we have basically under-penetrated from a chemicals perspective,” Rod Humphris, who stepped down from group managing director to chairman at the start of this month, said.

Omnia, which has already acquired a 90% stake in South Africa’s unlisted Umongo Petroleum for R780-million as part of its strategy to expand its chemical business, would continue to look for further acquisitions in its chemicals business, Humphris said.