Zeder pleased with SA's agriculture outlook, declares special dividend

Agribusiness-focused investment holding group Zeder said on Tuesday it remains confident in part due to good winter rainfall in the Western Cape, opting to fork out more than R200 million in special dividends for its half year to end-August.

An increase in the valuation of its biggest asset, specialist agricultural seeds and agrochemicals company Zaad, helped the group's sum-of-the-parts valuation rise about 0.6% to about R4.03 billion during the six months to end-August. Zeder said the specialised agri-inputs market, and particularly its proprietary hybrid seed segment, remains attractive, while recent Western Cape floods, fortunately, resulted in little damage to its infrastructure or biological assets.

Valued at about R2.6 billion on the JSE, Zaad makes up more than 60% of Zeder's portfolio, while it recently announced plans to sell most of its other major remaining interest - fruit farmer and marketer Capespan. The company will distribute the net proceeds of the about R550 million sale to shareholders.