Axia Corporation Limited, a publicly traded diversified group, reported profit before taxes of ZWL$3.462 billion in historical terms for the half year (H1) to December 2021, up 88 percent from the previous year’s similar period due to increasing sales following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in September 2021.
The main operating business units in the Axia Corporation Limited Group are TV Sales & Home (TVSH), Distribution Group Africa (DGA) and Transerv.
The Group reported revenue of ZWL$15.168 billion during the period to achieve a 70 percent growth compared to the prior comparative period.
The company’s board declared an interim cash dividend of ZWL66 cents per share from ZWL 24.5 cents last year in respect of all ordinary shares.
In its interim financial statement, the group said revenue growth filtered into gross margin which increased by 93 percent on prior period.
“Improved business activity resulted in the Group businesses recording volume growth except for the distribution businesses in Zimbabwe and Zambia,” the group said.
However, operating expenditure increased by 105 percent on comparative period due to certain indexed cost base.
The Group however posted an operating profit of ZWL$3.194 billion, representing an 84% increase on the comparative period.
At TV Sales and Home, the subsidiary increased its shareholding in Restapedic from 49 percent to 60 percent effective 1 July 2021. An amount of US$860,000 was paid for this extra investment. This increase in shareholding enabled Restapedic to invest in a 10,000 bed production facility which is under construction in Sunway City, Harare and is estimated to cost US$4.5 million. Completion of building the factory is estimated to be November 2022. Restapedic bedding attained revenue and volume growth of 33 percent and 5 percent, respectively compared to prior period.
“Second quarter volume performance was up 4% compared to the same period in prior year attributable to successful market activation promotions namely Black Friday and Ho-Ho-Home which were well received by consumers.,” the group said.
The debtors’ book grew by 102 percent in value and collections on the book have remained solid.
At DGA, in Zambia, the strengthening Kwacha encouraged the business to take advantage of Forward Exchange Contracts thus enabling pricing at reasonable rates. This enabled the Zambian entity to grow revenues by 21 percent and improve profitability by over 100 percent.
At Transerv, the group said turnover for the first half increased by 81 percent over the comparative period which was underpinned by volumes growth of 13percent.
