Freight and financial services company GrindRod on Friday (23 August) said it has exited the marine fuels business and is currently planning its sale by 2020.
“Grindrod’s Freight Services business is focused on ‘unlocking sub-Saharan African trade corridors,” it stated during an interim results report for the six months ended 30 June (1H) 2019.
“This requires the alignment of its businesses along key corridors, to connect and extend supply chains, effectively providing a corridor solution for cargo flow.
“The marine fuel business and agricultural investments do not fit into these ‘corridor solutions’, and the decision was made to exit these businesses.”
Grindrod’s discontinued operations, specifically the marine fuel and agricultural investments, reported a trading loss of R241 million (USD 15.71 million) in 1H 2019 compared to trading profit of R371 million during the similar period of last year.
“This includes an impairment provision in the Marine Fuels UAE business,” it continued.
“The Agricultural investments made good trading profits; however, the discontinued businesses are now held for sale and an impairment provision has been raised against the investment carrying values of the businesses to reflect management’s estimate of the recoverable value.”
Overall, Grindrod posted net profit of R136.7 million for the first half of 2019 against net loss of R418.2 million in 2018.
Photo credit: Grindrod
Published: 26 August, 2019
