South Africans were doing themselves a disservice by fixating on the number of foreign visitors expected to visit the country for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was to kick off in June.

This was an “irrelevant statistic”, said trade, services and distribution group Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe on Monday as he released the company's interim results for the six months ended December 31.

“There will be a number of other factors that will it make great.”

Ticket sales over the last few weeks had revealed that South Africa was unlikely to welcome as many foreign visitors to the global sports event as anticipated initially.

However, Joffe believed there were numerous business opportunities that existed regardless of the number of foreign visitors to the country.

Joffe said the organisers, journalists and volunteers would all need meals, for example.

He also believed South Africans would take up the lower-cost rooms that would be freed up ahead of the event should foreigners stay home for the European winter.

“Foreign visitors should not be less than 250 000,” added Joffe.

Bidvest had secured contracts for the event in terms of catering, ticket printing and toilet hire, for example.

The group was active in the cleaning, aviation, travel, car sales and rental, hygiene, security and logistics sectors.

Joffe said the World Cup was likely to be benefit Bidvest on many fronts, even if it was not quantifiable yet.

THE NUMBERS

Joffe described Bidvest's six-month results as “commendable”.

He said the group chose commendable as the word most apt to describe its performance for the period, as "sometimes a draw is as good as a win. I think a draw is good for the tough conditions we have been trading under."

Headline earnings a share increased by 9% to 495c a share for the six months ended December 31, compared with the same period in 2008. However, basic earnings a share declined by 6,8% to 494,3c a share as a result of the inclusion of net capital profits of R209,4-million in the comparative interim period.

Monday’s results include those of the newly-acquired Nowaco group, with effect from July 1, 2009, at a cost of €250-million.

Nowaco is a wholesaler to the food-service and independent retail markets in central and eastern Europe.

Bidvest revenue for the six months fell 6,5% to R56,1-billion.

The overall trading margin improved to 4,7%, compared with 4,4% in 2008.

Debt declined to R5,8-billion from R7,9-billion.

Debt to equity at 37,2% reflected a substantial improvement from 2008’s 56,7%.

Finance charges declined 31,5% to R385,6-million.

"We will have a much better operational performance in the next six months," said Joffe. "We will be playing more for a win in this period."

The group reported that its balance sheet remained strong with conservative gearing, and that it had the “capacity and desire” to seek out further strategic acquisition opportunities.

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