Barloworld Swings To Loss In Full Year As Revenue Declines

(Alliance News) - Barloworld Ltd on Monday said its performance during the recently ended financial year was resilient, reflecting the difficult trading environment and the challenges faced by its businesses.

The Johannesburg, South Africa-based industrial company said that, in the year to the end of September, it swung to a pretax loss of ZAR1.56 billion, about GBP76.6 million, from the ZAR3.06 billion profit reported a year before.

Revenue, meanwhile, declined 11% to ZAR49.68 billion from ZAR60.21 billion year-on-year.

The onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic in our geographies started impacting trading in March triggered by trade restrictions, lockdowns and travel restrictions that resulted in negative knock-on effects in the trading environment, the company explained.

In addition, Barloworld said it recorded impairment of goodwill of ZAR702 million and impairment of indefinite life intangible assets of ZAR708 million, versus no such charges a year prior.

Going forward, Barloworld said the current activity levels in its key markets are higher than initially anticipated as the short-term recovery has been better than expected.

Barloworld shares were untraded in London on Monday, last closing at 590 pence each, while in Johannesburg, the stock was down 3.2% at ZAR69.69.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

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