Despite a tough financial year, marked by weaker performance in its mining division and a flat performance in its chemicals division, owing to a struggling manufacturing sector, JSE-listed chemicals company Omnia achieved a 3% increase in headline earnings a share to R14.65 for the 12 months to March 31, compared with R14.28 in the 2014 financial year.

The group’s revenue rose 3.5% year-on-year to R16.8-billion, while its gross profit increased by 9% to R3.9-billion. Further, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose to R1.82-billion, owing to the higher depreciation and amortisation charge of R353-million.

Speaking at a presentation of the company’s results, in Bryanston, CEO Rod Humphris said the company had faced a challenging year with volumes being under pressure, margin squeeze, competitive pricing and mine closures.

He highlighted that Omnia’s agriculture division kept it buoyant, with good growth in sales. The division's operating profit Increased by 52% year-on-year to R656-million, owing to overall sales increasing 6%, an increase in cash sales in Zambia and Zimbabwe and higher production volumes at its nitric acid 2 complex and its downstream granulation plants.

The company also attributed the positive growth to record sales volumes of liquids and specialty fertilisers, a reduction in raw materials costs owing to tighter management of the various supply chain factors and a weaker rand, which was net positive on the operating margin.

MINING DOWN
Humphris pointed out that its mining division had, despite "very tough market conditions" and "a softer mining market", still achieved a good performance.

Factors such as mine closures, the loss of existing contracts and the reduction in tonnes mined added pressure to earnings, but the division’s performance was bolstered by a weaker rand, which supported sales prices, export business and foreign earnings.

The mining division’s R720-million operating profit was at a margin of 13.5%.

CHEMICAL WOES
Meanwhile, Humphris said the company had put a lot of effort into keeping its chemicals division afloat.

The division's profit dropped by 36% year-on-year to R100-million, while its operating margin declined to 2.4%, compared with 3.8% in the prior year, missing Omnia's target of 5.5%.

Omnia did not expect the manufacturing sector's performance to improve and, as such, consolidated its ten different chemicals businesses into one company, known as One Protea. "It went incredibly well from an information technology perspective," noted Humphris.

The completion of this restructuring would be completed in the current financial year.

Despite the many challenges, Humphris remained optimistic, stating that the weak rand would benefit all Omnia’s divisions and, paired with a strong balance sheet, the company would continue to gear up to fund any large capital projects or potential acquisitions, as it worked to expand beyond Africa.

“We see a number of business opportunities still in the market,” Humphris said.