South Africa's fashion retailer TFG to swing to first half profit (updated)

China Cultural Tourism and Agriculture

29/10/2021 14:50

(Adds details)
    JOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 (Reuters) - South African fashion
retailer TFG  TFGJ.J  said on Friday it expects to have swung to
a profit in the first half of the year as it recovered from
COVID-19 restrictions which forced store closures across its
markets.
    The clothes, homeware and jewellery retailer said it expects
basic headline earnings per share (HEPS), the main profit
measure in South Africa, for the six months ended Sept. 30 to be
between 384.8 cents and 401.5 cents, compared with a restated
loss of 83.3 cents in the same period last year. 
    TFG, formally known as The Foschini Group, also cited the 
acquisition of some commercially viable stores of budget
clothing chain JET as contributing to the expected profit.
    Trading was strong across Africa and the United Kingdom in
the second quarter, offsetting the impact of July's civil unrest
in South Africa and a severe lockdown in Australia, it said.
    Sales grew 51.8% in the first half compared to the same
period in 2020 when lockdowns forced store closures. Sales in
its second quarter rose by 18%.
     TFG estimated that retail turnover in excess of 600 million
rand ($39.40 million) will be lost for the full 2022 financial
year to the end of March as a result of the civil unrest which
led to the looting and damaging of 198 of its stores.
 


($1 = 15.2279 rand)

 (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla
Editing by Promit Mukherjee, Kirsten Donovan)
 ((nqobile.dludla@thomsonreuters.com; +27103461066;))