JSE-listed Long4Life has come out of the starting blocks with a “good beginning” and plans to start paying dividends from the 2018 financial year – less than a year after its April listing on the Johannesburg bourse.
Unpacking the group’s inaugural interim results, founder and CEO Brian Joffe explained that following recent acquisitions, Long4Life had more than R400-million in annualised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
The company posted maiden basic and headline earnings a share of 10.55c for the mix months to September 30, with profit for the period coming in at R41.3-million.
The company also maintained a good cash position with R1.6-billion available for future investments.
“Long4Life is a work in progress and we intend building a company that can deliver quality operating earnings from good cash generating businesses, with low- to medium-risk characteristics and with a reasonable line-of-sight to profitability,” Joffe commented.
Long4Life raised R2-billion from a wide spectrum of institutional and other shareholders and, since listing, has acquired control of Sorbet, Inhle Beverages and Holdsport.
“With the newly acquired companies, Long4Life's market capitalisation will increase substantially as it now gains substance and scale as a JSE-listed entity. This places the group in a position to conclude larger acquisitions going forward,” he said.
“We are patient for the right deal at a fair price,” Joffe concluded, noting the scope to gear against generating assets and cash balances, along with a capacity to use available scrip to acquire additional companies.