Africa-Press – South-Africa. Nampak’s share price fell more than 12% in opening trading on Friday morning after Africa’s largest packaging group warned that it anticipates a loss in the six months to end March.
The company said in its trading statement that it expects a headline loss per share of between 53.0c and 58.0c for the period, down from earnings of 35.6c in the corresponding previous period. This is due to higher net finance costs, impairment losses, and devaluation losses arising from Angolan and Nigerian exchange rate movement.
Friday’s slump, which recovered slightly to a 9.5% drop by 10:15, follows a similar loss warning in March, which resulted in a 15% fall. The company is down nearly 38% since January, and is down over 77% since May 2022.
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Erik Smuts resigned as CEO of the group in April, with the debt-laden packaging company saying his decision reflects the fact the role is changing as a disposal programme is shrinking the group. Phildon Roux, an independent non-executive director, was appointed interim CEO.
Nampak is struggling under the weight of a debt pile that stood at a net R5.2 billion at the end of September. It has also been trying to convince shareholders to back a rights issue that will potentially be more than twice its current market value.
It said in Friday’s trading update that negotiations around its refinancing package for the next five years are progressing, with an anticipated conclusion date of 15 June 2023.
“These negotiations, together with the group’s progress in terms of the implementation of the restructuring plan, will determine the size of the required rights offer, which will be announced in due course as part of Nampak’s ongoing shareholder updates.”
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