Johannesburg - Chemical and fertiliser company Omnia yesterday reported a 31 percent fall in net profit to R166.1 million for the year to March.
Rod Humphris, Omnia's managing director, attributed the fall to the strong rand and lower export earnings.
The group's headline earnings and headline earnings a share declined to R174.3 million from R239.9 million last year and R4.44 a share from R6.32 a share.
Omnia said the allotment of 1.831 million shares to the management vendors of Prochem, as part of the purchase price, diluted headline earnings almost 3 percent a share.
Omnia's revenue increased by 42 percent to R3.3 billion. Operating profit fell 23 percent to R332.4 million.
The company's cash flow from operating activities declined to R214 million from R358 million. The cash flow was used to pay debt, resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of 28 percent.
Humphris said that shareholders would be given the option to take the dividend in cash or shares.
"The dividend in cash is now R1.20 and in the form of shares it is R1.30," he said.
Revenues from the agriculture division had decreased by 11 percent to R1.6 billion because of falls in volumes and prices.
Omnia's staff would be given an opportunity to exercise their options to buy about 662 350 shares by the end of next month.
It had put in place two broad-based employee share schemes. The partnership with management scheme and the partnership with employees scheme were now eligible to purchase options and ordinary shares.
The partnership with the management scheme would enable members of management to turn convertible preference shares they bought five years ago into 1.4 million ordinary shares.
"The employees were given an option to buy shares at R7.60," Humphris said. Shares were available to employees who had been with the company for more than five years.
"The employee share scheme does not include Prochem employees because they have been with Omnia for seven months."
Omnia had about 400 black employees who qualified for the scheme, facilitated by Barnard Jacobs Mellet.
Mining revenues increased by 37 percent to R577 million following the inclusion of Prochem's existing mining business.
However, sales were hit by the strength of the rand, particularly in respect of African operations.
Humphris said that the continuing strength of the currency remained one of the major impacts on the financial performance of the group in the near term.
On the group's prospects, Humphris said: "The production of maize has returned to sustainable levels, resulting in more stable pricing.
"The national fertiliser market is expected to remain in line with the long-term average of 2 million tons a year."
Omnia's shares fell 5c to R28.95 on the JSE Securities Exchange yesterday. The chemical sector was unchanged.