FSG posts modest profits in subdued economy
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday August 19, 2015 18:02
According to the Group chairman, Neo Moroka the performance of the company remained within expectations, with moderate growth in terms of revenue and profitability.
In the period, revenue rose by 18 percent to P84 million, with Botswana operations showing resilience in a lukewarm economy.
The company also has operations in Zambia and South Africa. “During the first half of the year 2015, the economy of Botswana was largely subdued as the mining and non-mining sectors did not see any significant growth. Weak domestic demand, low growth in personal incomes and shortages in electricity and water supply caused lower than expected growth in GDP.
“In the background of challenging business environment, the performance of the group during the first half of the year 2015 has been satisfactory.
Whilst revenue grew by 18 percent, profit after tax grew by 13 percent, over the same period of 2014. Total assets exceeded P250 million,” he said.
Income from assurance business also showed stable growth as the group continued to invest in infrastructure and modernising its systems to enable efficient service delivery to customers.
Moroka added that the Zambian operations have also shown stable growth during the last six months, in terms of revenue form funeral services and assurance business.
“Approval from the City Council of Kitwe was obtained recently and efforts shall soon commence to build the Kitwe branch on land that was acquired in 2013.
The group continues to explore opportunities to open new branches in other towns within Zambia,” he said.
Moroka also said they have concluded the acquisition of a small established South African funeral business based in North West and Limpopo provinces.
For the period, the directors also resolved to declare an interim gross dividend of seven thebe per share, subject to the deduction of withholding tax at 7.5 percent, on the 2nd October 2015 and payable to members on the 12th October 2015. FSG is a public limited company listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), which was incorporated in 2003.
The group has a market share of 65 percent in the country.