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Africa's largest packaging group Nampak warned on Thursday it fell into a loss in the first five months of its 2023 half year, hit by large foreign exchange losses, while it also will need to implement hefty writedowns in Nigeria and Angola. The group's shares fell more than 15% on Thursday, but then recovered somewhat, and have lost about three quarters of their value over the past year.
Now valued at about R630 million on the JSE, Nampak has been battling under the weight of a debt pile that stood at a net R5.2 billion at the end of September. It has been struggling to convince shareholders to back a rights issue that will potentially be twice its current market value.
Revenue grew 5% in the five months to end February, Nampak said in a pre-close update on Thursday - primarily due to a 9% increase in its metals division, but the firm said it swung into "small loss after tax" as it counted the cost of currency shifts.
