By ETimes
OK Zimbabwe shares on Thursday finished 0.65% higher at $151.12 after investors took a favourable view on the retail giant, notwithstanding a decline in the company’s ear-to-date volumes.
Chief executive Max Karombo told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting that the retail sector is highly susceptible to episodes of hyperinflation.
“From our retail channel, we experienced very weak consumer demand during the first half and the group itself operated volumes that were very severely below the business break even point,” he said.
“In the first quarter, our volume performance was a negative 21,6 percent and the second quarter followed a slightly worse position as just under 24 percent and our year-to-date number is a 22,6 percent volume decline from last year.”
He said the group’s financial services arm will be branded Vimbai Capital and will be “a key focus area for our second half of our financial year”.
In the outlook, he said the group will focus on improving operating efficiencies despite the challenging operating environment.
“Given the steep rises in costs, we will optimise our cost initiatives across our operations by streamlining processes, renegotiating some of the supply contracts so that we land cheaper prices for customers and implementing various efficient measures to reduce our overheads,” Karombo added.
The retail giant began the year with a share price of $32.31 and has since gained 368% on that price valuation, ranking it 35th on the local bourse in terms of year-to-date performance.
It is currently the 21st most valuable stock on the ZSE, with a market capitalization of $189 billion, which makes up about 1.47% of the ZSE equity market-HARARE