By ETimes
CAFCA’s share price closed flat on Monday despite recording a significant increase in the proportion of foreign currency sales during the quarter ended June 30, 2023 to beyond 80 percent.
The country’s biggest cable manufacturer saw its share price stagnate at $2399.60.
In Q3 2022/2023, the company’s conductor sales fell 3.08% to 659 tonnes from 680 tonnes in the comparative period.
For the year to date, the conductor declined 4.25% to 1799 tonnes from 1879 tonnes in the comparative period.
Comparing the current quarter to the same quarter last year, export volumes increased to 106 tonnes.
“Our customers in Malawi continue to experience difficulty in obtaining foreign currency so stock replacement there is slow. Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania sales were in line with forecast,” the company said in a trading update.
“Local volumes for the quarter were 6% down on the same quarter last year with the largest drop being in the Utilities sector but a marked drop in all the other sectors towards the end of the quarter due to the tight ZWL$ monetary policy.”
As of the financials, the company’s historical turnover increased by 1033.33% to %37.4 billion in Q3 2022/2023 from $3.3 billion in the same period last year. Year-to-date turnover was up 756.45% to $53.1 billion from $6.2 billion in the comparative period.
Profit before tax went up 1545.45% to $18.1 billion for the quarter under review from $1.1 billion in the same quarter last year. Year-to-date profit before tax stood at $24.7 billion from $1.9 billion previously.
“The last quarter of the financial year outlook is mixed with the tight monetary policy impacting negatively on volumes whilst the large project orders we have in the mining sector improving volumes to ensure we have a good quarter,” the company said.
“We have seen, with the ZWL$ tightly controlled in the market, a shift in our US$ sales to 85% of turnover thus ensuring adequate foreign currency for our import needs.”
More than three-quarters of domestic spending is now in foreign currency – Harare