Bidcorp very happy over half-year results

BID CORPORATION (Bidcorp) share price climbed as much as 12.81 percent in early trade on the JSE yesterday after the group announced it had £1 billion (R16.33bn) for future mergers and acquisitions.

The shares, however, retreated back to close 11.12 percent higher at R257.25.

Bidcorp said during the presentation of its half-year results for the six months to end December that headline earnings per share had increased 20.3 percent to 600.3 cents a share, up from 499.1c a share as compared to the same period in 2015.

The international food service group, which was spun out of Bidvest in May 2016, also said small bolt-on acquisitions totalling R495.8 million had been concluded in Australia, Brazil, Belgium and Italy and at fresh in the UK.

Chief financial officer David Cleasby said Bidcorp was in a better financial position, which would enable the group to make more acquisitions.

“We would be comfortable with two times debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or core earnings, on a conservative basis, so that is probably taking us to R15 to R16bn.”

The group performed well in all geographies, driven by good organic growth and benefiting from market share gains.

However, sales in Britain were down 13.8 percent as the weaker pound weighed and Bidcorp exited some low-margin contracts, but it said its Bidfood UK unit had delivered an excellent result in local currency terms and had been bolstered by a positive second quarter.

Sales in the rest of Europe increased 12.5 percent and its emerging market division grew revenue by 14.8 percent.

Bidcorp has started a global rebranding exercise, trading as Bidfood to reinforce the firm’s image as a value-added food service group.

Basic earnings per share rose 20.7 percent to 600.3c, up from 497.4c a share during the period.