INNSCOR Africa Limited has set up an advisory committee to spearhead the unbundling of its quick service restaurant unit to be separately listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), the company said yesterday.
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In a cautionary statement yesterday, Innscor said the advisory committee would be chaired by executive director corporate finance, John Koumides.
“Further to the cautionary statement published on June 2 2015 regarding the approval by the Innscor Africa Limited board of directors to unbundle the company’s quick service restaurant business by way of dividend in specie of shares in an entity to be separately listed, shareholders are advised that an advisory committee chaired by the executive director corporate finance has been constituted,” Innscor said.
“Once clarity has been established on certain regulatory matters, a definitive time line for the unbundling will be published.”
The quick service restaurant business comprises Chicken Inn, Creamy Inn, Fish Inn, Steers and Nando’s, among others.
Companies have unbundled units to unlock value to shareholders.
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The proposed listing of the unit came as ZSE recently hinted three firms would join the bourse this year. Early this month, Proplastics ended the listing drought when it debuted on ZSE.
Proplastics was unbundled from Masimba Holdings.
In the six months to December 31 2014, Innscor saw its profit after tax dipping to $24 million from $64 million in the same period in 2013 due to a dip in volume emanating from low disposable income.
Innscor said customer counts within the fast food operations in Zimbabwe were 2% below those recorded in the comparative prior period, although consistent improvements in counts were recorded month-on-month throughout the period, with a particularly strong December trading month.
It said the process of centralising the fast food operations was largely complete and the above-site cost savings achieved from this initiative resulted in operating profits increasing by 19% over the same period.
“In our ongoing optimisation efforts, seven under-performing counters were closed in Harare during the period, while the Emerald Hill complex was closed for refurbishment and is due to re-open shortly,” Innscor said.
“Regionally, we opened an average of just over one counter per week during the period under review and customer counts increased by 5% over the comparative prior period, while improved operating leverage resulted in a 27%increase in operating profit over the same period. A further three new counters were added in Swaziland which is a franchised territory.” Innscor is targeting 55 additional regional counters in 2015.
