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Nelson Gahadza

Transport and Logistics company Unifreight Africa says it made a loss of $1,5 billion in 2022 which was largely driven by the group’s shareholding in Zimplow which declined by $2,16 billion driven by the inflation-adjusted re-valuation of historical value.

Mr Peter Annesley, the company’s chairman in a statement of financials for the year ended December 31, 2022 said revenue from continuing operations grew by 31 percent to $14,4 billion.

“However, earnings before interest, taxes, (EBIT) reduced by 58 percent on the back of a 306 percent increase in financial costs for 2022 while balance sheet grew from $13,1 billion to $18,6 billion due to the re-capitalisation of the fleet,” he said.

Mr Annesley said 2022 was both a challenging year as well as a year of change for Unifreight. 

He said while a number of macroeconomic changes to the operating environment weighed down performance, there were also a number of positive developments that will see Unfreight grow from strength to strength.

“Amongst the challenging macroeconomic conditions, Unifreight managed to secure a very attractive installment sale agreement from a foreign creditor resulting in the re-capitalisation of 50 brand new FAW 380hp prime movers with 50 AFRIT taut-liner trailers.

“This substantial re-capitalisation will go a long way towards diluting the fixed cost overhead of the business,” the Chairman said.

He said the group is optimistic about the future and will drive growth through increased capacity availability as well as improved efficiencies.

Mr Annesley said the additional 50 trucks were long overdue with the market readily availing additional volume to Unfreight. Listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) Unifreight, is a transport holding company, offering services in logistics, freight and passenger services to clients in sub-Saharan Africa.

The company has since 2020 pursued new revenue streams, investments in new vehicles and disposed of some assets, setting a firm foundation for business sustainability.

Unifreight in 2020 disposed of two subsidiaries to Zimplow Holdings for an equity consideration as the company sought to transform its illiquid investments into tradable ZSE shares.

Through its subsidiary Clan Services, Unifreight had a stake of 51 percent in Tredcor Zimbabwe and 100 percent of Birmingham Investments, which were acquired by Zimplow.

The transaction was that Zimplow would acquire Unifreight’s 100 percent shares in Birmingham Investments for a consideration of $58 million to be settled with 15,774,446 newly issued ordinary shares in Zimplow.

In addition, Zimplow offered to acquire Clan Services 52 percent shareholding for a consideration of $67 million settled with 18,399,564 newly issued shares of Zimplow.

According to Unifreight, the transaction presented an opportunity to enhance Tredcor’s performance which the company said had dragged Unifreight’s performance over the years.