DURBAN – The restructuring of Grindrod has been completed with the appointment of Andrew Waller as chief executive and Xolani Mbambo as financial director, with effect from September 1.
The group said on Friday that both executives would also perform these roles for the freight services business as Grindrod consolidates the structure.
Grindrod has concluded the spin-off of its shipping division and will focus on the remaining businesses, freight services and financial services.
Grindrod executive chairperson Mike Hankinson said the firm was seeing results from its focus on developing freight solutions for their customers using their infrastructure assets along Africa’s logistics corridors.
“Steady and organic growth is expected in the financial services division as it continues to drive focused business growth and seek investment banking opportunities,” Hankinson said.
The group said that with the separate listing of the shipping division complete, it was well positioned to drive the strategies of the freight services and financial services divisions.
“Significant initiatives to improve capacity and drive more efficient utilisation of resources will position the remaining businesses to increase market share and to capitalise on any global market improvements,” the group said.
Grindrod reported freight services and financial services as continuing operations, while Grindrod shipping was treated as discontinued operations in the results for the six months to end June results, which were published last Friday.
Grindrod successfully listed on the Nasdaq index in June and has a secondary listing on the JSE.
The group reported that headline earnings from continuing businesses, which comprise port and terminals, logistics, marine fuel and agricultural logistics and financial services, increased by 23 percent to R284.8 million, up from R231.5m last year, boosted by the performance from the remaining operations.
The group said revenue inclusive of joint ventures increased by 5 percent to R11.05 billion, up from R10.52bn.
Headline earnings per share increased to 37.8 cents a share, up from 30.8c. Earnings per share marginally increased to 46.7c, up from 45.6c last year.
“The interim results have highlighted good terminal utilisation and improved port volumes due to the completion of the channel-dredging in Maputo and buoyant chrome and ferrochrome markets and improved results on the north/south rail corridor,” Hankinson said.