Research archive for CSB

This morning we received interim results from Cashbuild for the 6 month period ending December 2013. Revenues were up 7% as they expanded their network by 16 more stores (they now operate 207 stores). They experienced price inflation of 4%. Cost of sales, selling and marketing expenses and admin expenses all increased more than the revenue growth which resulted in headline earnings decreasing 8%.

On Monday we received a trading update from Cashbuild. Sorry it's late, it has been a busy week in terms of company news. This update is for the second quarter of the year ending December 2013 but figures for the half year are also given.

Cashbuild released their full year numbers yesterday, you can download the results from their website: AUDITED ANNUAL RESULTS AND DIVIDEND DECLARATION - JUNE 2013. Unfortunately some of the key metrics are not that appealing, but judging from the markets reaction (nothing really) it was all baked into the cake. I mean, baked into the bricks, seeing as that is a product that the company sells. And of course these results were telegraphed to us from a while back, the operational update in early August gave everyone a good idea that the company is in a tough operating environment.

This morning we received a sales update for the fourth quarter from Cashbuild. If you have been following my updates on this company you will know that is has been a tough year for Cashbuild and I was getting concerned that sales were actually going to decrease. Well a stronger fourth quarter has prevented that, let's look at the numbers in more detail.

This morning we received a third quarter sales update from Cashbuild which came in line with what we have been seeing for the past six months, flat sales.

This morning we received interim results from Cashbuild for the period ending December 2012. I was planning on going to the results presentation tomorrow morning but unfortunately something came up and I had to cancel. I wanted to go because the company are not very forthcoming in their results commentary, leaving a few unanswered questions. Fortunately I managed to get hold of the Financial Director Etienne Prowse who was very helpful. We will deal with the commentary later, let's look at the numbers first.

Coincidentally and very much connected to what Abil had to say, Cashbuild also released an operational update for the second quarter of their fiscal year. It was disappointing and the market has been ruthless, the share has dropped 7% so far today and is down 18% from the highs in August last year of R167.80.

On Friday afternoon we saw a first quarter operational update from Cashbuild which looked pretty muted.

I've been following this one quite closely through its recent sales and trading updates but finally Cashbuild have released their full year earnings for the 53 week period ended 30 June 2012. The numbers came in line with the trading update as earnings were normalised from a big BEE transaction last year.

The last update we got from Cashbuild was a sales update for the 53 week period which suggested revenues will grow 11% on the back of some margin growth. We used the figure of 24% to estimate growth in headline earnings. This was based on the figures we saw in the first half of the year, giving us an estimate of 1313c headline earnings for the year.

Let's start with the Cashbuild numbers. There is not much commentary, just a divisional and quarterly breakdown.

This morning we had 6 month results from Cashbuild. Remember that they released a trading update two weeks ago that got me very excited about the valuations of this fabulous business. Here was my analysis of the update which also covered the financial details of the BEE transaction. I'm not going to go through that again, we will just use headline earnings per share for comparative purposes.

Yesterday we had a trading update from Cashbuild, one of the darlings of the market for the last ten years. In fact they are the 6th best performer on the JSE over the last decade boasting a 3000% return. Fantastic. These guys found a gap in the market and took it with both hands. It seems so easy in hindsight. We have the majority of the population starting to reach for economic independence. Cashbuild are a retailer of building products at reasonable prices. Obviously the execution part took loads of hard work. The company has been listed since 1986, Rome wasn't built in a day, they have done the hard yards.

Remember the trading update we had from Cashbuild last week? Well, the results came out this morning which reiterates what we were already told. They did a share buy-back and distribution to BEE participants which of course affected earnings but excluding this once off, headline earnings per share were up 28% for the year. This was in the middle of the range from the trading update. Now we know that these guys are cash retailers in the building sector, selling mostly building materials. But in this results presentation they also elaborate who their clients are which I think needs repeating. "Our customers are typically home-builders and improvers, contractors, farmers, traders, large construction companies and government-related infrastructure developers, as well as all other customers requiring quality building materials at lowest prices."

Then we'll look at the update from Cashbuild, the guys who retail low cost building equipment and materials.