Nampak shares rise despite tough conditions

NAMPAKS’ share price rose more than 21 percent on Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday despite Africa’s largest diversified packaging manufacturer suffering an impairment charge of R3 billion in Angola and Nigeria in six months to the end of March.
The group said an impairment of R2,2 billion was attributable to goodwill in Nigeria and an asset impairment of R800 million in Angola.
The impairments pushed the group into a loss of R2,86 billion, resulting in a loss of 408,9 cents a share. Last year, the group reported a profit of R844 million.
Chief executive Erik Smuts said the weaker demand in key markets, pressure on consumers’ disposable income and net impairments of R3 billion negatively impacted these results.
“Although the Nigerian outlook has since deteriorated, Bevcan Nigeria enjoyed volume growth, but Divfood, Bevcan Angola and Bevcan SA performed below expectations due to total market contractions and loss of a key customer.
— IOL