• Revenue for the year increased by 13% to R8,7 billion 
• Operating profit, excl BEE, up 33% to R612 million
• Headline earnings, excl BEE, increased by 41% to R494 million
• Total dividend per share growth of 41% to 1 001 cents

Cashbuild, southern Africa’s largest retailer of quality building materials and associated products, selling direct to a cash-paying customer base through 232 retail outlets, reported a record set of final results for the year ended 30 June 2016. Werner de Jager, Chief Executive of Cashbuild, stated: “We concluded a 200,000 share repurchase from the Cashbuild Empowerment Trust for a once-off cost of R63 million and acquired P&L Hardware effective 1 June 2016. The inclusion of P&L Hardware’s results, for effectively 25 days, had an immaterial impact on the Group’s results for the year under review. The results reported in this media release excludes the BEE share repurchase once-off cost.”

Group revenue for the year increased by a pleasing 13% from R7,7 billion (June 2015) to R8,7 billion. These results are attributable to our existing 213 stores, prior to 1 July 2014, increasing their revenue by 9%, the new 20 stores contributing 3% and P&L Hardware contributing 1% to revenue growth. Market conditions remained challenging and we saw selling price inflation of 3%.

One of our key focus areas is cost control and we managed to increase our operating expenses by only 9% from R1 384 million (June 2015 restated) to R1 502 million, including new store costs. Operational expenses for the year remained well controlled with existing stores accounting for 5% of the increase and new stores 4%. This resulted in operating profit being up by 33% to R612 million from R465 million in the prior year, with an excellent operating profit margin of 7.1%, compared to the 6.0% achieved last year.

Basic EPS increased by 42% from 1 547 cents (June 2015 restated) to 2 197 cents and HEPS increased by 43% from 1 528 cents (June 2015 restated) to 2 168 cents. De Jager said: “Our financial position remains strong and we achieved an increase in NAV per share of 14% from 5 258 cents (June 2015 restated) to
5 981 cents. We maintained our net cash position, being R749 million at year end, despite having acquired P&L Hardware.”

The Board declared a total dividend for the year ended 30 June 2016 of 1 001 cents (final dividend
488 cents), an increase of 41% on the total dividend for 2015 of 712 cents per share. We have already seen trading conditions coming under pressure in the first six weeks of trading for the financial year ending 30 June 2017 and are expecting this trend to continue over the short to medium term. The 42 stores added with the acquisition of P&L Hardware will continue to trade under its current brand in the Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces. Cashbuild’s stated strategy is in place to mitigate risks the Company could potentially face.  Cashbuild’s expansion plan into Zambia is well on track with the first stores scheduled to open in Kabwe and Lusaka in June 2017.