The executive chairperson of Lonrho, David Lenigas, said on Friday that the Africa-focused group would focus on its core businesses of agriculture and logistics, following the separation of its aviation division last month.

Reporting on the group’s six-month financial performance, he said that Lonhro’s core businesses were directly aligned with the economic growth drivers of Africa.

“These businesses [agriculture and logistics] generated like-for-like revenue growth in the six months of 26.4% and net operating profit of £4.7-million,” Lenigas said.

Lonrho posted overall revenue growth of 79.2% from £68.6-million to £122.9-million, a like-for-like increase of 29.1% for the six months ended June.

Lenigas said that the company continued to deliver strong growth in revenues and margins in its core business divisions and was continuing to see the growth convert into operating profitability.

The agribusiness reported revenues of £72.7-million, up 130% , making it the largest of Lonrho’s core divisions, as it accounted for 71% of revenues.

Lonrho believes that Africa, which holds 60% of the world’s arable land, is an essential component to meeting global expanding food demand.

“Agriculture is a major contributor to Africa’s economies and, over the past four years, Lonrho has established a unique vertically integrated agri-logistics delivery cold chain that can reliably deliver fresh produce from Africa to market providing continuity of quality and traceability,” it stated.

This business is building momentum with a blue chip client base and Lonrho is seeing growth in demand from African, European, Scandinavian, North American, and, increasingly, Far Eastern supermarket chains.

Lonrho reported revenue of £10.9-million from its infrastructure unit, £5.1-million from its hotels and £14-million from its support services.
 

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