Shipping and logistics group Grindrod expects to narrow its headline loss to between R119-million and R139-million for the six months ended June 30, a 64% to 69% improvement on the headline loss of R381-million reported for the first half of 2016.
It further expects to report a loss of between R77-million and R97-million for the six months, a 91% to 93% improvement on the loss of R1.12-billion recorded in the prior comparable period.
Grindrod, therefore, expects to report a loss a share of between 10.3c and 12.9c and a headline loss a share of between 15.9c and 18.5c for the period under review, compared with a loss a share of 149.2c and a headline loss a share of 50.8c reported in the first half of 2016.
The company noted that stronger mineral commodity exports have impacted positively on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, which reached R640.4-million inclusive of joint ventures and excluding rail assembly businesses, compared with R246.4-million in the prior comparable period.
The Ports and Terminals division recorded satisfactory profits and the Shipping division recovered to above cash breakeven following a strengthening of dry bulk shipping rates.
Grindrod Bank continued to grow its profitability.
Grindrod will publish its interim results on August 23.