SENS announcement of 28 September 2017 will bring much delight to investors in Zambeef shares. Carl Irwin and Francis Grogan, the dual CEOs of the company announced that the effects of fungal disease that they believed would wipe out a substantial amount of value (projecting negative earnings), was in fact not as bad as they thought. Earlier in the year, Septoria was projected to wipe out over 20% of the winter wheat. However, the duo are happy to report that the impact is only in the region of 10 per cent.
With operations stretching from Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana, the CEOs advised that the harvesting of wheat was at an advanced stage. It is during this process that their operations team discovered that the impact would not be that bad. From almost crying wolf, the duo are expects to report a small profit for the year to 30 September 2017.
The duo and small shareholders will not be the only ones who will be pleased. Recall that Zambeef’s noteworthy US$65 million investment agreement with CDC Group Plc was been nominated for the 2017 African Banker Awards Deal of the Year – Equity category. CDC will be delighted with the news in their freshman year as investors. FiZambia.com will also be curious to see whether with the small profit that company projects to declare, they will honor their pledge in their adjusted dividend policy to make shareholders even happier.
Fungal diseases aside, this much anticipated news will be welcome on the back of what has been a challenging year which saw the company give up its prodigal child (Zampalm) after years of investing with minimal return and faced the wrath of mixed fortunes from the impact macro environment on some of its divisions.
Further analysis of the firm will come once they publish their 2017 annual audited accounts. Grant Thornton will have the responsibility of reporting the financial results (Financial Statements – Income, Balance Sheet and Cash flow statements) which we at fizambia.com will be keen on analyzing.