Johannesburg - OneLogix invested R320.8 million in operational infrastructure in the year to May as the listed niche logistics provider continued its more than 10-year uninterrupted growth trajectory in the year to May despite extremely difficult markets.
Ian Lourens, the chief executive of OneLogix, said yesterday that the investments included R207.7m in fleet, of which R136.6m related to expansion; R103.8m in property, including the R90m second phase of the OneLogix Logistics Hub that was completed early this year; R5.3m in IT-related assets; and R4m for other assets.
Lourens said the Logistics Hub now had the capacity to store 9 000 passenger vehicles under cover and a further 1 000 commercial vehicles. The Logistics Hub also provided facilities, such as workshops, refuelling, offices, driver accommodation and fleet parking areas to all the group’s companies, and extended the strategic benefits of this facility to more companies across the group, he said.
Acquisitions concluded by the group in the year included a 100 percent interest in specialist bulk logistics company Vision effective from July last year for R110m and a 74.2 percent interest in Cryogas from October last year for R5.5m, which represented an expansion of the group’s bulk liquid business into the local and regional cryogenics markets. Lourens said had the Vision and Cryogas businesses been acquired effective from June 1 last year, it would have resulted in a R65.5m rise in revenue and R9.3m increase in profit after tax. “The businesses contributed R117.3m in revenue and R16.4m in profit after tax to the group for the year,” he said.
OneLogix reported an improvement in headline earnings a share to 25.7c in the year to May from the headline loss a share of 1.7c in the prior year.
Revenue from continuing operations increased by 30 percent to R1.78bn from R1.37bn.
Operating profit increased by 179 percent to R135.8m from R48.7m.
Cash generated from continuing operations rose 33 percent to R173.2m from R129.8m.
Lourens said this growth was a reflection of the group’s continuing ability to convert trading profits into cash and further supported the strong focus on working capital management.
Lourens said the group benefited from a diversified income stream and investments in fleet and operational infrastructure and that acquisitions substantially increased the size of operations.
He said the group expected difficult trading conditions for all group companies to persist for the foreseeable future.
“Given these circumstances, the group will continue to focus on ensuring maximum efficiencies from existing businesses to protect and grow its market share in the respective niche markets within which it operates,” he said.
OneLogix shares fell 3.08 percent yesterday to close at R3.15.
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