JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South African discount retailer Pepkor Holdings reported on Tuesday a 14.8% rise in full-year earnings, driven by strategic initiatives and strong fintech growth.
The owner of PEP and Ackermans clothing brands said headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations rose to 161 cents in the year ended on September 30, up from 140.2 cents a year ago. Normalised HEPS grew 23.4% to 161 cents.
The group’s fintech segment grew by 31.1% to 16.6 billion rand ($960 million), driven by a 61.4% growth in financial services and a 13.7% rise in Flash, its informal market platform, the company said.
The group’s gross profit margin grew by 150 basis points to 39.8%, which benefited from the growth of its fintech business.
Strategic initiatives included the acquisition of Choice Clothing to enter new customer segments and the launch of the Ayana brand which targets the adultwear market.
Group revenue climbed 12% to 95.3 billion rand while the clothing and general merchandise business grew 8.9% to 66.9 billion rand. The furniture, appliances and electronics segment increased by 7.2%.
“Retail continues to drive the vast majority of our revenue, delivering consistent cash generative growth, and that will continue to be the case into the future as the group leverages scale across its embedded fintech, telco and informal market adjacencies to drive future growth optionality,” Sean Cardinaal, group chief operating officer, said in a statement.
($1 = 17.2927 rand)
(Reporting by Siyanda Mthethwa; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
