South African retailer Pepkor expects FY profits to fall, shares dive

Retailer Pepkor Holdings , previously Steinhoff Africa Retail (STAR), said on Tuesday that full-year earnings are expected to fall as much as 42 percent because of new shares and a provision, sending its share price down more than 11 percent.

The clothing and furniture retailer said earnings per share would be mainly affected by dilution from the issue of 882 million shares in 2017.

Pepkor said in May that earnings would be affected by a 500 million rand ($36 million) provision to cover a third-party debt acquired through using its Steinhoff International’s shares as collateral.

An accounting scandal at Steinhoff that came to light in December last year wiped more than 90 percent off the company’s market value and forced it to sell assets.

Pepkor said headline earnings per share for the year to Sept. 30 are expected to be between 77.8 cents and 91.2 cents per share, compared with 133.6 cents the previous year.

Shares in Pepkor were down 5.87 percent at 17.33 rand after initially falling more than 11 percent.

“If you look at what has come out, it’s not exactly stellar numbers. These things tend to get hammered on the basis of expectations,” said Ryan Woods, market trader at Independent Securities.