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Trading statement
Grindrod Limited
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number 1966/009846/06)
Share code: GND & GNDP
ISIN: ZAE000072328 & ZAE 000071106
(“Grindrod” or “the Company”)
TRADING STATEMENT
Good progress has been made on the separation of the Shipping business and management have
continued to strategically refocus the Freight and the Financial Services businesses.
Commodity markets and drybulk shipping rates were stronger in the second half of the year,
demonstrating a marked improvement in results across core businesses, when compared to prior
year.
Continuing operations
Operating results during the second half of 2017 remained on a positive trajectory supported by
continued improvement in mineral commodity exports. The Freight Services business performed
well, with all bulk commodity businesses reflecting an increase in volumes when compared to the
first half of 2017. Grindrod Financial Services continued to grow, with strong profit performance
and growth in assets under management.
As a consequence of the above, the group expects headline earnings from continuing operations,
for the twelve months that ended 31 December 2017 to be between R566 million and R576 million,
which is an improvement of between 171% and 176%, compared to the prior year comparative
period headline earnings of R209 million. Earnings from continuing operations for the period are
expected to be between R641 million and R651 million, which is an improvement of between 345%
and 352% compared to the prior year comparative period earnings of R144 million.
Discontinued operations
The decision to list Shipping separately and exit the Rail businesses results in the classification of
their respective results as discontinued operations. Discontinued operations are expected to produce
a loss of between R1 234 million and R1 224 million after adjustment for fair value. As a
consequence, and ahead of the unbundling, specific ships and goodwill of R 620 million have been
impaired. Note however that the realisation of the substantial foreign currency translation gain,
arising from the Shipping dollar based, net assets will occur on listing in 2018 and could not be offset
against the impairment.
Shareholders are advised that, as a result of the above, we expect a loss per share for the year
ended 31 December 2017 of between 76.3 cents and 78.9 cents, being a decrease of between 70%
and 69% respectively compared to prior year loss per share of 254.2 cents per share. Headline loss
per share for the period is expected to be between 46.1 cents and 48.7 cents, being a decrease of
between 25% and 20% respectively compared to prior year headline loss per share of 61.2 cents
per share.
The loss for the twelve months that ended 31 December 2017 is expected to be between R573
million and R593 million, which is an improvement of between 70% and 69%, compared to the prior
year comparative period loss of R1 908 million. Headline loss for the period is expected to be
between R346 million and R366 million, which is a decrease of between 25% and 20% compared to
the prior year comparative period loss of R460 million.
The information contained in this trading statement has not been reviewed nor reported on by the
company’s external auditors.
Grindrod will release its final results to shareholders on Monday, 26 March 2018 and will be holding
an investor presentation in Johannesburg on that day.
By order of the board
27 February 2018
Sponsor: Grindrod Bank Limited
Date: 27/02/2018 12:10:00 Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited ('JSE').
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