e-spaces

King Consolidated Holdings (Kingco) had been suspended from the JSE because the franchised fast food company had failed to timeously obtain the required review by its auditors for the provisional results, the JSE said yesterday.

July 2, 2008

By SLINDILE KHANYILE

Durban – King Consolidated Holdings (Kingco) had been suspended from the JSE because the franchised fast food company had failed to timeously obtain the required review by its auditors for the provisional results, the JSE said yesterday.

The owner of brands like Bimbo’s, Keg, McGinty’s and Saddles submitted its results for the year to February on Monday, which was the deadline.

Non-executive director Paul Cottrell said the company was made to understand that unaudited results were acceptable.

“Because the results were late, the JSE wants them to be reviewed by our company auditors,” said Cottrell. “It should take a couple of weeks and then we will submit them.”

Kingco made an operating loss of R134 million in the year to February as revenue fell to R230 million.

The firm said the year was characterised by industrial action at the largest branch of Lusitania, which distributes frozen foods. This led to reduced capacity and resulted in a loss of market share and a slow subsequent recovery of operational efficiencies.

“That strike cost us a lot of money,” said Cottrell.

Kingco said: “The processing division continues to be the main contributor to the group’s losses.”

Doug Doel, the JSE’s general manager for issuer services, said if a company failed to submit results within three months of its year end, it had to provide provisional statements that had been looked at by auditors.

If it did not do this by the end of the fourth month, “the result is suspension”, said Doel. He said Kingco would remain suspended until it met the requirements.

On what impact the suspension would have on Kingco, Cottrell said: “None at all.”

Kingco was untraded at R1.