Health of JSE’s food producers in the spotlight

Tuesday’s focus will be on food producers, with results from RCL — the group created by merging Rainbow Chicken and Foodcorp — and Sea Harvest, the fishing group unbundled from Brimstone in March 2017.

RCL said on August 16 it expected to report on Tuesday that its headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year to end-June grew by up to 57.5%.

“The improvement was driven by the recovery in the chicken business unit, strong volume performances in the dressings, pet food and pies categories, lower interest costs, and a tax credit related to an energy efficiency allowance,” the trading statement said.

RCL said its chicken division benefited from its revised business model and lower feed costs, “partially offset by the negative impacts of avian influenza and the listeriosis crisis”.

Its sugar business unit suffered from “continued high levels of imports”.

Sea Harvest said on August 10 it expected to report on Tuesday its headline earnings remained flat while basic earnings decreased by up to 31%.

The drop in basic earnings was due to transaction costs of its R885m acquisition of fishing group Viking.

Randgold & Exploration (R&E) — a cash shell formerly part of Brett Kebble’s web of companies and commonly confused with London-listed Randgold Resources — said on Friday it expected to report its interim loss narrowed.

R&E — whose main income has come from suing auditors and others entangled in the Kebble scandal — said it expected its headline loss per share to drop to about 12c for the six months to end-June from the matching period’s 15.13c.

“The reason for the decrease in the loss and headline loss per share in the current reporting period is mainly a result of a decrease in legal and consulting fees,” R&E said in its trading statement.

Other companies that might release results on Tuesday include Cashbuild, and Master Drilling.

Asian markets were generally buoyant on Tuesday morning, taking their cue from Wall Street where the Nasdaq index clocked 8,000 for the first time on Monday as the market celebrated the US and Mexico reaching a trade deal.

The JSE’s all share index rose 1.46% to 59,656 points on Monday — leaving it some way to go before it challenges its 61,777 record set on January 26.

The rand was trading at R14.23 to the dollar, R16.61 to the euro and R18.31 to the pound at 6.25am.