African conglomerate Lonrho announced growth across all its divisions and said sales had hit £189m for the 15 months to December, giving a pre-tax profit of £800,000. The company also intends to pay a dividend in 2013.
Revenue in the final quarter was up 67 per cent to £46m, with like-for-like sales growth of 30 per cent. The transportation division, which operates the regional hub airline Fly540, really took off – doubling like-for-like sales, and the group's agricultural division, which contributes more than 50 per cent of sales, saw a respectable 15 per cent increase in like-for-like sales.
A January share placing saw Lonrho raise £29.6m before expenses to fund further growth and the group recently won contracts worth £10.2m to build 116 new schools in South Africa. Broker Panmure Gordon forecasts EPS of 1.2p and kept its buy recommendation with a price target of 21p.
