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JOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 (Reuters) – South African state logistics firm Transnet reported on Friday an 8.4 billion rand ($551 million) net loss for its financial year to the end of March 2021 and said it had breached its borrowing terms, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.
The company said it would engage with affected lenders to request waivers of their right to accelerating debt repayment.
It said it breached its loan covenants with an outstanding balance of 19.1 billion rand as at Sept 30 2021.
Full-year revenue dropped 10.5% to 67.3 billion rand and core profit (EBITDA) fell 42.8% to 19.5 billion rand. Cash generated from operations fell to 24.4 billion rand, while the company paid 29 billion rand to service debt.
Transnet’s rail arm Transnet Freight Rail has been plagued by massive theft of copper cables which increased sharply during the pandemic.
$1 = 15.2482 rand Reporting by Helen Reid Editing by Promit Mukherjee and Mark Potter
