PPC blames poor performance on credit rating downgrade

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South Africa: PPC has blamed its poor performance in its financial year to 31 March 2017 on a poor credit rating from S&P Global Ratings. Its chief executive officer Darryll Castle complained about a liquidity crisis caused by the downgrading of PPC’s credit ratings to junk status by S&P Global Ratings in May 2016. He also attributed the result to falling cement prices in South Africa and poor weather in early 2017.

The cement producer’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 13% year-on-year to US$160m for its financial year that ended on 31 March 2017 from US$184m in the same period in 2016. Despite this its sales revenue rose by 5% to US$745m from US$711m and its cement sales volumes rose by 1.6% to 5.54Mt from 5.45Mt.

PPC reported that its 1Mt/yr production line at PPC Slurry is on schedule for commissioning in the first half of 2018. Its 1.4Mt/yr plant in Ethiopia started selling cement in May 2017 and sales are expected to rise as the plant ramps up production.

Last modified on 14 June 2017

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