Pepkor Group, a Cape Town-based investment holding linked to South African billionaire and retail mogul Christo Wiese, delivered an outstanding financial performance at the end of its 2022 fiscal year, with profits exceeding $350 million.
During the period under review, the group experienced a number of operational disruptions, including the flooding of the PEP distribution center in KwaZulu-Natal in April 2022, the impact of the July 2021 social unrest on its operations, and product mix changes in its Flash business.
Pepkor’s recently released financial results for the 2022 fiscal period, revealed that its profit rose by 25.3 percent, from R4.88 billion ($282 million) in 2021 to R6.11 billion ($353 million), as the management was able to negotiate the murky waters in its operating environment and deliver a double-digit increase in earnings as a result of higher sales and improved efficiency.
The group disclosed that trading has been extremely volatile since the onset of COVID-19 three years ago, and it was able to achieve a 5.3-percent increase in revenue from R77.3 billion ($4.47 billion) in the previous period to R81.4 billion ($4.71 billion).
The single digit increase in revenue, driven by a surge in retail revenue and a double-digit increase in financial services revenue, highlights Pepkor’s ability to produce consistent results through times of market uncertainty and demonstrates the strength of the group’s positioning in the market.
Pepkor’s total assets climbed from R103.6 billion ($6 billion) to R113.6 billion ($6.57 billion) as a result of the strong growth in its earnings, while shareholder equity increased from R58.2 billion ($3.37 billion) to R62.7 billion ($3.63 billion).
Pepkor Group is a South African investment and holding company that maintains a portfolio of retail chains throughout Africa, Australia, and Eastern Europe selling apparel, footwear, textiles, and accessories.
Wiese, a South African billionaire, sold Pepkor to Steinhoff International, a South African-German-Dutch international retail holding company, in exchange for 20 percent of Steinhoff’s issued shares in 2014.
