Earnings forecast to rise by 100%

GRINDROD, the listed freight and financial services group that earlier this year unbundled and separately listed its shipping business, expects its earnings to improve by more than 100 percent in the six months to June. The group yesterday attributed this improved financial performance to the successful execution of the unbundling and separate listing of the shipping business on Nasdaq, with a secondary inward listing on the JSE, that cleared the path for renewed strategy focus on its remaining freight and financial services businesses. It expects headline earnings a share to be between 5.2 cents and 2.5c a share, which would be an improvement of more than 100 percent on the 17.2c headline loss a share in the previous corresponding period. Grindrod shares gained 3.40 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R8.21.