Innscor calls for policy consistency
CLOUDINE MATOLA
Innscor Africa Limited, a diversified publicly traded conglomerate, has urged the government to prioritise the implementation of consistent, clear policies that foster market-driven outcomes, enabling better capital allocation across industries, Business Times can report.
Board chairman, Addington Chinake, expressed the group’s cautious optimism about the country’ outlook.
“The group remains cautiously optimistic on the medium to long-term prospects for the economy and is hopeful that the authorities will pursue a pathway of implementing consistent and clear policies that encourage more market-determined outcomes which in turn will allow for improved capital allocation decisions by industry,” he said.
Despite operating in a challenging environment, Chinake said the group achieved robust performance across its portfolio, positioning itself for sustainable growth.
“Notwithstanding the extremely turbulent and complex market conditions under which the Group operated during the year, solid and encouraging volume growth was registered across the portfolio, and this was key in delivering the improvement in overall profitability. Earnings quality remained excellent, with strong free cash generation; the Group is now well positioned for sustainable growth in the period ahead,” Chinake said.
In its annual report to June 30, 2024, Innscor reported a 13.2% increase in revenue to US$910.065m from US$804.040m reported in the prior comparative period.
Chinake said this performance was driven by leasing volume growth across the entire portfolio.
Profit after tax rose to US$48.160m in the period under review from US$37.844m reported in the same period in 2023.
EBITDA grew by 13.7% to US$86.048m in the period under review from US$75.656m registered prior comparative period.
Depreciation and amortisation rose by 22% compared to the prior year, driven by the significant investment across the Group during the previous three financial years.
The group’s net interest expense decreased by 31% to US$9.28m in the period under review from US$13.443m recorded in the prior comparative period.
Contributions from associate businesses also grew to US$4.990m, up from US$1.723m in 2023.
Headline earnings per share for 2024 amounted to 6.46 US cents.
