Shoprite, Standard lift profit but PPI takes hit

SHOPRITE Holdings, Africa’s largest food retailer, said first-half profit increased faster than a year earlier as price increases were kept below the official inflation rate, boosting volumes sold. Net income advanced 12% to R2.2-billion against a 9% rise a year earlier. STANDARD Bank said full-year profit would rise by up to 30%, boosted by lower losses from discontinued operations outside Africa. Diluted normalised headline earnings per share would be between 20% and 30% higher. BUILDER Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon reported an 11% rise in first-half profit as a strong performance in Australia offset slow growth at home. Headline earnings per share rose to 634c compared with 570c a year earlier, it said. CURRO Holdings, South Africa’s largest private schools operator, said it planned to raise R1-billion in a rights issue this year to fund investment as it sought to almost double its number of schools to 200 by 2020. SOUTH Africa’s producer inflation accelerated to 7.6% year on year in January from 4.8% in December, Stats SA data showed. On a month-on-month basis, prices at the factory gate were up 1.6%, compared with a 0.2% rise the previous month. HOTEL chain Sun International reported a 19% fall in half-year profit, in line with its own forecast, blaming flat casino revenue growth at home for the decline. Headline earnings per share slid to 332c, it said. MASSMART Holdings, the food and general goods retailer controlled by Wal-Mart Stores, cut its full-year dividend by 39% to R2.58 a share and said the outlook for consumers was weakening amid rising interest rates and inflation. BHP Billiton’s South32 spin-off said it would axe more than 1 750 jobs as part of sweeping cuts to deal with plunging commodity prices after a big half-year net loss. The company posted losses of $1.75-billion (R27.3-billion).