SA’s biggest building materials retailer, Cashbuild, has flagged an up to 35% fall in headline earnings per share (Heps) for its 2022 year, hit by violent riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, as well as the crumbling of the pandemic-induced home improvement boom.
Heps are expected to fall between 30% and 35% to as low as 1,867.2c, the firm said in a trading update, which would be about 2.2% below pre-pandemic levels.
Cashbuild had already flagged a drop in earnings and revenue before Tuesday’s brief statement, reporting in June that revenue had fallen 12%.
The builder had generated a record R12.62bn in revenue for 2021, up a quarter from 2020, while headline earnings jumped 151% to R650.4m as it cashed in on pent-up demand for home improvement during the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced people to reevaluate the quality of their abodes.
However, SA’s building retailers reported that that trend had begun to wane even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which helped push up inflation as well as interest rates.
Cashbuild, which had 318 stores at the end of June, experienced looting in July 2021 that affected 36 of its stores, and has indicated that excluding those stores, revenue fell 7% for its 2022 year.
By the market close on Tuesday, the firm’s shares were up 1.63% to R249.50, giving it a market value of R6.2bn.
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