Brait set to pay $0,30 a share, will end year in r
Financial Services Editor
INVESTMENT banking house Brait plans to give about $0,30 a share back to its shareholders as it dishes out cash released when it gave up its banking licence, but the group warned yesterday that its bottom line would be deep in the red for the year to March.
Brait had warned at interim stage that attributable earnings would be lower than last year's, because of the rand's strength, losses on discontinued banking operations and softer showings in major business units.
Since the interim, however, the rand has got even stronger. The group warned yesterday it would make an attributable loss for the year to March but CE Anthony Ball emphasised that the loss was in line with what the market had expected, so yesterday's announcement was not a profit warning.
The analysts' consensus forecast is that Brait will make a 208c-a-share loss for the year.
Brait holds half of its capital offshore and the other half is substantially hedged, with the hedges due to unwind only in September this year.
With the rand almost 45% stronger at end-March than it was a year previously, Brait will have to take heavy translation losses through its income statement and its balance sheet.
Ball said Brait, however, expected profitability from here on. "We have done what we need to do, closing the bank, making strategic changes to the business and writing down asset values to where they should be," he said.
The group yesterday detailed the new operating and management structures it has put in place after it shed its banking licence last year and rationalised its operations. It is now focused on three core divisions: in private equity, advisory services and specialised funds management, reflecting what it is good at.
The group had about R270m of cash on its balance sheet at end-September, all held in dollars. Ball said the group would keep some cash to back operations with growth plans, including specialised funds and private equity.
The rest will be distributed to shareholders in special dividends, in two to three tranches.
Apr 17 2003 07:20:20:000AM Hilary Joffe Business Day 1st Edition
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