OK Zimbabwe revenue up by over $800 million

ZwNews.com

OK Zimbabwe has registered an $801.9 million revenue for the year ended 29 March 2019 latest financial statements have shown.

The group’s abridged audited financial reports have shown that the company has registered high margins in revenue, with earnings per share also rose to 4.12 cents, with net asset value per share up 14.05 cents, and the final dividend has been proposed at 1.71 cents per share.

In a statement accompanying the financial reports, group chairperson Hebert Nkala said the growth was achieved despite a challenging environment in the second half of the financial year. Adding that the fiscal and monetary policy pronouncements in October 2018 also affected confidence in the market among holders of RTGS@$ and bond notes triggering panic buying as a way to retain value and guard against shortages.

He said the shortage of foreign currency affected the replenishment of merchandise, with the official year to year inflation rate raising from 2.68% in March 2018, 5.39% in September to 66.8% by March 2019 respectively.

In the outlook he said; “Product supplies remain a challenge, and strategic linkages with suppliers will be key to ensure that the stores are reasonably stocked. Despite the economic challenges in the country, the group will focus on growing market share profitably through continuously enhancing the customer value proposition.”

Nkala said the overall group performance improved in both sales growth and profitability compared to the year prior. He added that overheads growth was restricted to 31.4% which was below the revenue growth of 37.6%, with the slight rise in expenses attributed to staff costs, maintenance costs, spares, rentals, bank charges among others.

On another positive, Nkala said the group operated free of debt, as internally generated funds were sufficient for both working and capital expenditure requirements.