Super Group looking forward to jump in profits

Super Group, the listed transport and logistics business, has notified shareholders that it expects stellar earnings when it releases its annual results at the end of August.

The Johannesburg-based company said it expects headline earnings per share (Heps) to increase 64%-100% in the year to June 30, according to a trading update released on Thursday.

That would take its Heps, a widely used profit measure in SA that strips out one-off items, to a projected range of 248c303c versus 151.2c in the previous financial year.

Revenue for the year is expected to climb 6.4%-26.5% to between R36.8bn and R43.8bn while operating profit was forecast to increase 20.8%-46.5% to between R1.9bn and R2.3bn.

Super Group said it had experienced strong sales performance in its fleet solutions unit as well as its UK dealerships and that it remained focused on generating cash and managing its working capital. The company has caught up with all capital projects delayed due to lockdowns in SA in the previous financial year and was in a robust financial position, it said.

THE FOCUS REMAINS ON THE POTENTIAL FINALISATION OF THE LEASEPLAN TRANSACTION AND ORGANIC GROWTH

“The focus remains on the potential finalisation of the LeasePlan transaction and organic growth,” Super Group said in its trading statement, referring to its acquisition of Australian fleet-management business LeasePlan.

“The retention of existing contracts and the optimisation of business solutions across a number of new customers in the supply chain and fleet operations are priorities.”

The company said it had conducted a strategic review of its businesses due to the long-term socioeconomic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and had consequently “right-sized” its operations to ensure they were appropriate for current levels of demand in the economy. It said its historically underperforming SA consumer and convenience businesses as well as its European supply chain operations continued to show financial improvement.

Super Group is due to release full-year results on August 30. The company’s share price gained 0.95% to close at R32, giving the group a market capitalisation of R11.8bn.