Sizzling results drive Spur’s share price to 52-week high on JSE

Analysts say Spur Corporation is soaring above South Africa’s macro-economic and political upheavals after the restaurant and eatery operator – which posted a 27% surge in revenue and lifted headline earnings per share by 81% for the year to end June 2023 – soared to a 52-week high on the JSE.

Spur Corporation’s JSE share price lifted by 1.27% on Friday although it is massively up by 26.6% at R 27.8 in the year to date comparative.

“There are a number of companies in South Africa executing very well and creating tremendous shareholder value while not using the dire political and macroeconomic environment as cover for poor performance,” said Piet Viljoen, who manages Merchant West Investments Value Fund.

Cratos Asset Management said the 52-week highs touched by Spur’s stock this week had been attained on the back of “a sizzling set of results” that came “despite elevated” food inflation.

Spur has declared a final dividend of 110 cents per share for the year ended June 2023, which will be funded from “income reserves” and to be paid out on 18 September.

This was after the group lifted revenues for the period under review by 27.4% to R3 billion while group profits before tax also soared 51.9% to R318.4 million.

In the prior year, Spur Corporation incurred a material once-off charge against earnings of R22 million, previously paid to the South African Revenue Service (Sars). About R14m of this charge was reflected as an income tax expense while R8m as an interest expense for the prior year period.

For the current period, earnings paced up by 75% to R212.2m, with diluted earnings per share coming in 80% higher at 258.86 cents.

This was on the back of the group achieving “a strong trading performance with franchised restaurant sales increasing by 23%” over the prior year. In the first half of the period under review, Spur’s franchised restaurant sales grew by 31.5%.

“Although economic conditions remain challenging in the face of higher inflation and severe pressure on consumer disposable income, the group’s business model continues to demonstrate its resilience. In the second half of the year, group sales increased by 15.1% over the comparable period of the prior financial year,” it said.

During the period under review, 22 restaurants were opened in South Africa and 10 internationally, while 20 restaurants closed permanently in South Africa and four internationally as a result of marginal performance and inability to sustain current market conditions.

“Results were buoyed by parents eating out at Spur post-Covid,” said Cratos Asset Management.

The company has, however, lately been impacted by the taxi strike in the western Cape where trading was disrupted for seven days, and 97 franchised restaurants were affected.

The turnover loss from this amounted to R4.5m amid supply chain and distribution delays to restaurants while production at the group’s sauce-manufacturing plant was halted for four days.

In the outlook, Spur is banking on the resilience of its higher-income target market against potential negative economic conditions to lift sales by 7%, “which is slightly higher than the targeted South African inflation rate range” of between 3% and 6%.

BUSINESS REPORT