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Clicks and Afrimat managed to please the market with their results on Thursday, while a protracted autoworkers strike in the US seems to be finally coming to a halt.
SA's biggest pharmacy group Clicks reported that adjusted headline earnings grew about 11% to R2.5 billion amid a 12.2% increase in retail sales for its year to end-August, with growth picking up in its second half, while it carved out some additional market share across its core categories. A sustained recovery in the beauty category was supported by the Clicks Club Card loyalty programme, which has grown to 10.4 million active members, while the group upped its dividend 6.6% to R6.79 for the year. The market liked the result, with its shares leaping more than 7% at one point, though it later pared gains to trade 6% higher. The group has still lost about 15% of its value in the past year.
Building materials and mining group Afrimat reported an almost 10% climb in revenue to R2.8 billion in its half-year to end June, with a doubling in operating profit in its construction materials business helping to offset pressure from coal. The group has been investing to ramp up production of anthracite and also said it benefitted from increased refurbishments of SA's road and rail infrastructure. Despite keeping its interim dividend unchanged at 40c, its shares had lifted almost 5% in afternoon trade and are up more than 11% for the past 12 months.
