The period under review was characterized by surging inflation, exchange rate volatility and power shortages. The tight monetary policy stance adopted by the authorities gave rise to rapid informalisation and increased USD transactional flow, especially in the informal market. Meanwhile, the formal market suffered from subdued aggregate demand owing to pricing issues. Consumer spending in the Zambian market was under pressure because of imported price increases from South Africa. Malawi also experienced severe exchange rate depreciation. Intermittent raw material supply gaps owing to delays in auction payments weighed on TV Sales & Home (TVSH) production volumes, resulting in a 14% and 7% decline in the Restapedic and Legend Lounge units, respectively. Meanwhile, DGA volumes fell 29% y/y in Zimbabwe as demand in the formal sector weakened, whilst Zambia volumes increased 22% y/y on the back of an increase in high-margin products. In Malawi, volumes eased 15% as the persistent foreign currency shortages disrupted stock imports. Transerv, on the other hand, showed positive performance during the period under review, posting a 5% revenue growth with 8 new retail stores opened. Overall, the adverse operating conditions in all its markets resulted in a marginal drop in Axia’s revenue of 0.21% from US$204.18mn to US$203.75mn in FY23. Increased fuel costs and human capital costs continued to exert pressure on the business. This, compounded with foreign currency exchange losses emanating from depreciation of local currency-denominated monetary assets resulted in a 15.56% decline in EBITDA from US$24.69mn to US$20.84mn in the period under review. Consequently, EBITDA margin also eased from 12.09% to 10.23% y/y. The Group closed the year with a PAT of US$6.18mn, a 38.54% decline from US$10.06mn registered last year. Profit attributable to shareholders and headline earnings declined by 33.09% and 33.66%, respectively. The business closed the year with cash and cash equivalents of US$2.84mn after generating US$15.11mn in cash, whilst total borrowings ended the year at US$12.88mn. The Group declared a final dividend of 0.1 USc per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 0.28 USc per share.
