South Africa's Bidvest FY profit ticks up, Asia unit robust

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African food and shipping conglomerate Bidvest Group reported a 6 percent increase in full-year profit on Monday, as a strong showing in Asia and positive currency swings offset weak demand at home and in Europe.

Bidvest, whose businesses include food distribution, auto dealerships and shipping, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 1,552 cents in the year to end-June compared with 1,471 cents a year earlier.

That was a touch below the 1,586 cents estimate from Thomson Reuters StarMine. Headline EPS, South Africa's primary profit gauge, strips out certain one-off items,

Bidvest, South Africa's third-largest company by revenue, reaps more than half of its sales in its home market, which has been hit by slow growth, worsening consumer demand and a wave of wildcat strikes.

Bidvest said sales rose 15 percent to 153.4 billion rand and it lifted its full-year dividend by 15.8 percent to 720 cents per shares.

Sales in Asia rose by 22 percent, Bidvest said, more than double the growth in South Africa. The company said it was also helped by the weaker rand currency, which boosts profits when overseas earnings are brought home.

Shares in the company are up about 12 percent so far this year, largely in line with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's All-share index.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-bidvest-fy-profit-5-4-pct-063711370.html

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