Cambria Africa Regulatory News (CMB)

 Cambria Africa Plc

("Cambria" or the "Company")

Audited FY 2018 Results

Cambria achieves record FY 2018 EPS of 0.50 US cents

Cambria Africa PLC (AIM: CMB) ("Cambria" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its audited results for FY 2018 ("the Results").

The company achieved record audited earnings per share of 0.50 US cents (0.38 p) in FY 2018. This differs by 0.02 cents per share from the preliminary unaudited results announced by the company on 8 November 2018. The difference is a result of application of an IFRS2: Share Based Payment audit adjustment relating to expensing shares issued to directors and executives on 22 May 2018.

The Company achieved audited earnings per share of 0.57 US cents (0.44 p)before once-off reorganization costs, an increase of 159%.

Audited Financial Statements are available on the Company's website (www.cambriaafrica.com) and will be sent to shareholders today.

In accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, the closure of Payserv Zambia in early 2017 has been treated as discontinued operations. Accordingly, Payserv Zambia's loss of $153,000 has been excluded from continuing operations in the comparative FY 2017 results.

FY 2018 Results highlights:

· Group:

· Cambria achieved record Profit after Tax ("PAT") of $1.90 million for FY 2018, a turnaround of $2.25 million from a loss of $349,000 in FY 2017 on a 10% increase in consolidated revenues to $9.44 million from $8.60 million in FY 2017.

· Earnings Per Share ("EPS") increased to 0.50 US cents, an increase of 0.62 cents from a loss of 0.12 cents per share in FY 2017.

- Excluding once-off legal and reorganisation costs, EPS increased 159% to 0.57 US cents from 0.22 cents in FY 2017.

· Consolidated EBITDA increased 180% to $3.46 million from $1.24 million in FY 2017.

- Excluding once-off legal and reorganisation Costs, Cambria increased its consolidated EBITDA by 70% to $3.72 million from $2.20 million in FY 2017.

· Cambria's central costs decreased by 85% to $185,000 from $1.27 million in FY 2017. Excluding legal costs, Cambria's central costs decreased by 15% to $263,000 from $311,000 in FY 2017. Central costs for FY 2018 include an IFRS 2: Share Based Payment expense of $68,000 relating to the issue of shares to Non-Executive Directors and management on 22 May 2018. Cambria's CEO continued to render his services to Cambria without compensation during FY 2018.

· Group interest costs fell 32% to $252,000 after the partial conversion and partial repayment of VAL loans. Consolidated debt decreased to $619,000 from $3.33 million at the end of FY 2017, of which $205,000 is domiciled in Zimbabwe.

· Divisional:

· Payserv achieved record profit before tax (PBT) of $3.1 million with a:

- 19% increase in revenues to $7.57 million,

- 37% increase in consolidated EBITDA to $3.63 million, before reorganisation costs of $262,000,

- 28% increase in PBT to $3.1 million,

- 32% increase in consolidated PAT to $2.34 million.

· Millchem, at a PAT of $217,000 achieved profitability for the first time in four years with:

- $1.88 million in revenues, a reduction of 16% still reflecting the strategy to focus on a more profitable product mix. Notably, sales volumes on a like-for-like product basis, have started to increase during FY 2018,

- 29% gross profit margin, a 58% improvement from 18% gross profit margin in FY 2017,

- $383,000 turnaround in EBITDA to $240,000 from a loss of $143,000 in FY 2017,

- $250,000 (45%) reduction in overheads,

- $383,000 turnaround in PAT to $217,000 from a loss of $169,000 in FY 2017.

Radar Acquisition and Subsequent Events:

Before the end of the Financial Year Paynet Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd ("Paynet"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambria, acquired a beneficial interest of 7.83% in Radar Holdings Limited ("Radar"), an unlisted public company in Zimbabwe ("the Radar Acquisition"). The effective date of the Radar Acquisition was 31 August 2018 and has accordingly been included in the Results.

The Radar Acquisition was settled through the subscription by Paynet for 62.84% of the ordinary shares of AF Philip & Company (Pvt) Ltd ("AF Philip"). AF Philip holds a 15.65% interest in Hinshaw (Pvt) Ltd ("Hinshaw") which, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, holds a 79.65% interest in Radar. The total consideration of $1.6 million translated into an effective price of 40 US cents per Radar share.

Subsequent to the end of the financial year, Paynet deployed $400,000 to acquire an additional 1.15% shareholding in Radar. The transaction was implemented through the same subscription mechanism described above at an effective price of 68 US cents per Radar share.

Cambria is in discussions to further increase its shareholding in Radar. Should the opportunity arise, the Company will rely on the pre-emptive rights of AF Philip to increase its shareholding in Hinshaw which owns 79.65% of Radar shares. In the opinion of the Board, Radar will be a direct beneficiary of any uptick in the Zimbabwe economy through its regional monopoly in brick manufacturing and its significant development land holdings. In addition, the Radar investment provides an attractive hedge against the possible deterioration in the purchasing power of cash and cash-equivalents in Zimbabwe.

Outlook:

The Company updated its shareholders on the impact of shifts in parallel exchange rates in its recent RNS announcements (6 October 2018 and 8 November 2018). On 12 January, the government of Zimbabwe, recognizing these disparities in the parallel rate, increased the mandated price of fuel in "local dollars" to $3.31 and $3.14 for petrol and diesel respectively. Tellingly, they maintained a price of $1.32 and $1.24 when payment is made with US dollars cash or international credit card - implying the government sees the value of a "real" dollar to be 2.5x the value of local dollars.

The outlook for Direct Foreign Investment and balance of payment support for Zimbabwe significantly dimmed following violent protests and the ensuing clampdown by government forces. Historically, companies that have survived such seismic shifts in the country's fortunes have come back stronger and more profitable. Cambria expects to survive the dislocations created by these events. As some investors turn away, Cambria's management feels that it will have an opportunity to capitalize on new opportunities at significantly lower investment costs than before. It is our opinion that the recent events will push Zimbabwe into closer economic cooperation with South Africa and in turn this will be a strong basis for a turnaround in the economic and political stability of Zimbabwe - Cambria's main economic focus.

Payserv Zimbabwe expects to continue to receive funding at 1:1 to the US Dollar to pay license fees and repay loans. Although it would be reasonable to expect a rise in overhead costs for Payserv and Millchem, the reorganisation completed by Payserv in FY 2018 should save the company about $400,000 annually in cost-to-company salaries, allowing it to absorb a significant portion of such an increase.

Millchem expects the new Exchange Control Regulations, allowing it to charge in "real" US dollars, to facilitate the funding of increased levels of raw material imports, alleviating a significant constraint to its business model over the last two years.

The Company reduced its cash position in Zimbabwe to minimal levels before the start of the current turbulence through investing its available cash in beneficial ownership of Radar shares. At the date of this announcement, cash resources outside Zimbabwe (in "real" US dollars) total $1.1 million and the Company continues to be actively considering a number of investment opportunities.

The impact of these shifts in exchange rates on the Company's accounting profits are hard to gauge. In some instances it will exaggerate the Company's "real dollar" earnings and in some instances overstate its costs. In the main, our earnings are from fees charged to banks. These fees are fixed in "local" dollars however license fees to the parent company remain in "real dollars". We anticipate that the country's central bank will continue to honour these obligations, stabilizing "real" earnings, notwithstanding disparities between official and effective rates on accounting revenues and profits. To put this in perspective, the license fee per transaction stands at 5 US cents payable to Payserv Africa in Mauritius. In FY 2018 Paynet generated license fees for 27.7 million transactions forecasting continued and significant "real" cash flows to our Mauritius subsidiary. Accounting for 40% of the total value of financial transactions in Zimbabwe, Paynet is a key player in Zimbabwe's economy.

Changes to the board:

The board remains unchanged.

About Cambria Africa Plc:

Cambria Africa Plc (AIM: CMB), is an AIM listed investment company holding controlling interests and active management control in companies well-positioned to benefit from the growth and modernisation of Zimbabwe's economy. Its wholly owned operations in Zimbabwe are:

· Payserv Africa, a FinTech company with $7.57 million in revenues in FY 2018. Payserv's Paynet Zimbabwe subsidiary holds a dominant position in the country's electronic payments market, facilitating about 40% of all payments in the country. Paynet has a proven track record of secure transactions with ubiquitous presence in all financial institutions and MNO's. Paynet's product is used by every government department and by over 5,500 of the largest private banking customers. Paynet serves over 2.5 million unique final beneficiaries in Zimbabwe. Paynet also cuts a wide swath in Zimbabwe's payroll management and consumer loan processing markets. Payserv is ideally positioned to leverage its existing technology platforms to exploit opportunities which arise from FinTech disruptions. Payserv intends to introduce innovative payment technologies and distributed ledger security to increase its penetration in the consumer market which represents 97% of transaction volumes.

· Millchem Zimbabwe is a value-added chemicals distributor with $1.88 million in revenues for FY 2018. The company is currently focused on ethanol-based solvents due to the significant local availability of ethanol. Millchem achieved its first profit in more than four years following the successful implementation of Cambria's turnaround program.

Chief Executive's Report

Introduction:

I am pleased to report record earnings of 0.50 US cents per share for the year ended 31 August 2018. After the end of our fiscal year, the government of Zimbabwe introduced a number of economic measures which have created uncertainty and dissipated hopes for increased direct foreign investment and balance of payment support in the near term. Cambria is well-positioned to weather these uncertainties. As a result of our proactive measures in advance of these events, we continue to see the glass as half-full.

The Results reflect the first full year without litigation expenses and excludes the unprofitable operations in Zambia which were discontinued at the end of FY 2017.

· Cambria achieved record after tax profits of $1.90 million for FY 2018, a turnaround of $2.24 million from a loss of $349,000 in FY 2017.

· EPS increased to 0.50 US cents, an increase of 0.62 cents from a loss of 0.12 cents per share in FY 2017.

- Excluding once-off legal and reorganisation costs, EPS increased 159% to 0.57 US cents.

· Consolidated EBITDA increased 180% to $3.46 million from $1.24 million in FY 2017. 

· Cash flow from operating activities increased more than ten-fold to $4.58 million from $421,000 in FY 2017.

· Central costs decreased by 41% to a record low of $185,000 from $311,000 in FY 2017.

· Debt levels, finance costs and shareholder equity improved significantly as a result of healthy cash generation and the successful Open Offer completed in July 2018.

Historical performance - An 8-year history of Consolidated EBITDA, Overheads and Earnings Per Share from FY 2010 to FY 2018, illustrate the remarkable turnaround in Cambria's performance (see link below).

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7557O_1-2019-1-31.pdf

These charts demonstrate that despite an extraordinary turnaround in earnings to record levels, the share price has not recovered. The Company has taken a number of steps to improve liquidity and reduce unnecessary uncertainty:

- Fear of delisting - During the Open Offer, I committed that VAL which holds a majority stake in Cambria, would not support delisting.

- Misclassification - As a result of the misclassification of Cambria as a "closed end fund" many potential and current shareholders were precluded by their brokerage firms from trading in Cambria shares. We have taken active steps to correct this information and we believe the matter has been rectified.

- Liquidity and spread - To help reduce the large bid/ask spread and volatility in the share price, in December 2018 we appointed SVS Securities as joint brokers.

- Free float - We hope a recovery in the share price will allow VAL to be diluted, increasing the share's free float and liquidity.

Divisional Review

Payserv Africa Group

The Payserv Africa Group achieved record revenues and profits in FY 2018.

Payserv Africa Divisional Results (from continuing operations)

Payserv's consolidated EBITDA before reorganisation costs ($262,000) increased by 37% to $3.63 million from $2.65 million in FY 2017. PBT increased by 28% to $3.1 million from $2.4 million and consolidated PAT increased by 49% to $2.34 million from $1.56 million in FY 2017. This was achieved on the back of a 19% increase in revenues to $7.57 million from $6.37 million in FY 2017. All these figures exclude the results of the discontinued operations of Payserv Zambia.

Payserv has completed a reorganisation which resulted in once-off costs of $262,000. Resultant annual savings are estimated at $400,000 which will assist in absorbing expected inflationary pressures on the overhead cost base in Zimbabwe. Any residual savings will be allocated to developing new FinTech initiatives and improving Payserv's existing technology.

Paynet Zimbabwe

Paynet Zimbabwe allows government and corporate clients of all banks and Mobile Network Operators (MNO's') to electronically pay employees and suppliers throughout Zimbabwe's financial network. Paynet facilitated 27.7 million transactions in FY 2018 representing 40% of Zimbabwe's electronic transactions by value. Paynet branded software is subscribed to by all government departments, all insurance entities, and 5,500 of the largest corporate entities in Zimbabwe, reaching over 2.5 million beneficiaries.

Despite this dominant position in the corporate and government sector, Paynet controls only 2% of the total volumes of electronic transactions in a market which is now dominated by EcoCash, the leading mobile wallet.

Paynet's ubiquitous bank presence gives it the credibility and opportunity to introduce new products:

· Paynet is ideally positioned to create new front-end universal retail products such as mobile payments and P2P chat payments (through WhatsApp and Telegram etc.).

· Creation of net settlement systems and exposure monitoring for banks and central banks.

· Sale of ICT products and services to the banking sector and major corporates.

· Developing distributed ledger technologies to enhance transaction security and reduce transaction costs.

· Developing integrated banking biometric KYC systems.

· Creating settlement and payment systems for closed-loop marketing and purchasing groups such as the Tobacco Marketing and Grain Marketing Boards.

· Establishing a foothold as a last-mile service provider to multiple international remittance operations by improving their distribution channels and value addition.

Autopay Zimbabwe

Autopay is a leading payroll management business offering 1) a full-service Payroll Bureau; 2) Software and licensing of payroll and HR Products to major corporates and; 3) Online SME payroll processing.

Autopay traded profitably and the process of realigning Autopay's strategy to increase its penetration into the SME market resulted in a 19% increase in gross profit on the back of a 5% increase in the number of payslips being processed to 363,000 from 345,000 in FY 2017. Autopay's payment bureau, launched in 2017, processed 400,000 transactions, up almost seven-fold from 59,000 in FY 2017.

The Autopay management team aims to continue building on this success through leveraging its integral relations with Paynet's payment services and Tradanet's loan services.

Tradanet (51% owned)

Tradanet provides customised loan processing and management software for Zimbabwe's largest Building Society CABS. It also provides hosted loan management solutions for emerging microfinance entities.

Tradanet's improvement in loan volumes continued in FY 2018 increasing 8% to $125 million from $116 million in FY 2017. Tradanet's loan book grew by 46% to $178 million from $122 million at the end of FY 2017. The improvement is mainly a result of the reinstatement of Credit Partners and the success achieved with Flexicredit, a card-based loan product, which replaced the CPS loan product (a straight line of credit).

Tradanet also expects to increase its revenues through other new products it has received or is seeking approval from CABS:

· Flexicredit Hybrid - a product directed at employees of larger publicly held corporates which can be evaluated by reliance on publicly disclosed information.

· Insurance Premium Financing.

· Automobile ownership financing.

Payserv Zambia operations discontinued

Payserv Zambia was discontinued in FY 2017. In line with International Financial Reporting Standards, Payserv Zambia's performance for FY 2017 is reflected separately as a "discontinued operation" and excluded from the balance of Payserv's and Cambria's continuing operations. Payserv Zambia did not have a material impact on the Results for FY 2018.

Payserv Zimbabwe Divisional Revenues (see link below)

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7557O_1-2019-1-31.pdf

Millchem Zimbabwe

Millchem has recorded an after-tax profit of $217,000 for FY 2018, its first profit in more than four years. The turnaround from FY 2017 supports the case for a sustained recovery for Millchem:

· $1.88 million in revenues, a reduction of 16% caused by a focus on a more profitable product mix. Notably, sales volumes on a like-for-like product basis, have started to increase during FY 2018,

· 29% gross profit margin, a 58% improvement from 18% gross profit margin in FY 2017,

· $383,000 turnaround in EBITDA to $240,000 from a loss of $143,000 in FY 2017,

· $250,000 (46%) reduction in overheads,

· $386,000 turnaround in PAT to $217,000 from a loss of $169,000 in FY 2017.

Board of Directors and Compensation

Cambria issued 5,000,000 shares to its Non-Executive Directors and management in May 2018. This resulted in an adjustment to our preliminary results of $68,000 (0.02 US cents per share) in accordance with the provisions of IFRS 2: Share Based Payments

As the ultimate beneficiary of over 69% of Cambria shares, I continued to serve without compensation during FY 2018.

Radar and FinTech Innovation

I have repeatedly expressed my conviction that "Zimbabwe provides the best regional opportunity for successful investment and growth in the short to medium term". We are actively pursuing a number of investment opportunities aligned with this strategy.  One such opportunity was investing in Radar shares. Radar is literally a brick and mortar company. Radar, a public unlisted company, has a dominant position in the brick market in the nation's second largest city and significant real estate holdings.

By investing almost all available cash held in Zimbabwe in this attractive investment, we hedged against the deterioration of purchasing power of cash equivalents in Zimbabwe. This advantage was borne out by the fact that the last acquisition cost of shares has risen from 40 US cents equivalent for our first investment of $1.6 million compared to 68 US cents equivalent for our second investment of $400,000.

In addition to the strategy of increasing our shareholding in Radar, I am focused on creating value through investing in, and developing a strategy of FinTech Innovation. Our FinTech subsidiary Payserv already holds a leading position in the electronic payments market. It has a proven track record and ubiquitous presence in all financial institutions and MNO's. We are ideally positioned to be in the frontline of the FinTech disruption in Zimbabwe which for all practical purposes has become a cashless and fully digitized society. I believe however that we have underperformed our true potential, especially in the consumer market. Our strategic focus in FY 2019 will be to unlock this potential by focusing on innovation through strategic partnerships.

Samir Shasha

Chief Executive Officer

31 January 2019

Cambria Africa Plc

Audited consolidated income statement

For the year ended 31 August 2018

Cambria Africa Plc

Audited consolidated statement of comprehensive income

For the year ended 31 August 2018

Cambria Africa Plc

Audited consolidated statement of changes in equity

For the year ended 31 August 2018

Cambria Africa Plc

Audited consolidated and company statements of financial position

As at 31 August 2018

Cambria Africa Plc

Audited consolidated statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 August 2018