Raubex, South Africa’s infrastructure development and construction materials group, on Monday said its revenue for the six months to August surged 23.2% to R7.38-billion, supported mainly by increased activity on the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) projects in KwaZulu-Natal.
The JSE-listed group said its revenues were aided by the Beitbridge border post project and the recently acquired Bauba Resources, noting that it reported operating profit of R550-million, an increase of 26.4%.
The company further said its roads and earthworks division is primarily dependent on the South African road construction sector through its construction capacity and is directly and indirectly exposed to government expenditure on road construction and maintenance.
“Most of the major Sanral projects in KwaZulu-Natal are running at full capacity and are performing well. The division was also well-supported by various concession projects [N3TC, Bakwena and TRAC] throughout South Africa during the reporting period,” the company said, adding that revenue for the division increased 31.6% to R2.94-billion and operating profit surged 59.5% to R174.6-million.
Raubex’s infrastructure arm registered revenues of R2.1-billion, an increase of 9.5% and operating profit rose to R206.3-million. The construction materials division netted revenues of R1.05-billion, up 7.3% but operating profit decreased by 27% to R64.9-million.
The company’s materials and mining division recorded a 52.9% increase in revenue to R1.23-billion. However, operating profit dropped by 2.3% to R104.4-million.
Raubex, armed with an order book of R16-billion, said the infrastructure division is well-positioned to participate in government’s drive to increase power generation capacity.
The company’s borrowings increased by 16.6% to R1.12-billion, largely to support financing requirements at Bauba. Raubex, valued at more than R5-billion on the JSE, declared an interim dividend of 53c per share.
Felicia Msiza, CEO of Raubex Group, said: “Our teams navigated tough macro-economic and inflationary pressures as well as supply chain constraints to achieve a pleasing group performance supported by all four divisions.
“The group strategy to diversify into Australia, PPP’s and mining is proving successful. These initiatives were key contributors to the robust results with Australia continuing its solid performance from last year.”
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