Thank you, Claudia. Good afternoon, good morning to all our stakeholders across Africa, Europe, America and Asia. My name is Ilze Roux, and in the room with me is our Chairman, Bonang Mohale, CEO Mpumi Madisa, CFO Mark Steyn, and Executive Director Gillian McMahon. Today, we proudly announce our excellent Bidvest Group results for the year to June 2022. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. With that, Chair, I hand over to you.
Thank you, Ilze. Colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to our annual report back on the group's performance that has been delivered over the past year. This result is especially noteworthy considering the unexpected events we have all experienced, both locally and globally, over recent years. It is extraordinary how quickly we have been able to reset and deliver another excellent performance. Delivering a good result is one thing, but a corporation can only say it is truly performing satisfactorily if it delivers benefit beyond the financial statements, also to its broader base of stakeholders. I'm reminded of a quote made by our first democratically elected president, Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela, when he opined that what counts in life is not the mere fact that we lived.
It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we live. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Bidvest has done this admirably, specifically in terms of employment generation, learnerships and bursaries, ensuring employee and supplier transformation, providing for all levels of education, while also improving the commitment made to all our other social environmental ambitions. At all times, adhering very closely to our strict governance procedures. It is only when you achieve commitments made through a clearly defined purpose that provides benefit for your people, the planet, resulting ultimately in a strong performance, can you say that success has been achieved. A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination, as articulated by former President Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela.
I'm confident that Bidvest's ability to continue adapting to these ever-changing markets, its prudent management and resilient companies, as well as the robust balance sheet and financial standing, will all stand us in good stead as we move forward. On behalf of the board, many thanks and congratulations are passed on to Nompumelelo Madisa, her leadership team, and the more than 120,000 people that make up the Bidvest family on these truly stellar results. I'm encouraged by what has been achieved, and I look forward to what lies ahead as we aim to shape a brighter future for the Bidvest Group, for all our stakeholders in our country. My kindly handover to Nompumelelo Madisa.
Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you for that beautiful opening. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you very much for taking the time to join us today. I'm really honored. Myself, Mark and Gill are honored to have the opportunity to deliver what is an outstanding set of results. There were many headwinds during the year, both locally and globally. If I had to talk through all of them, it would be a laundry list. I choose not to because I think most of them are well-known. I think that these results really, again, demonstrate the resilience of the group. We have some records that we are celebrating this year, and some of those records include the fact that for the first time, we have six divisions that have posted double-digit trading profit results.
These six divisions all generated returns from a ROFE perspective in excess of 60%, which is really excellent. The Commercial Products Division's trading profit for the first time reached ZAR 1 billion mark. Around March, when the team reached this ZAR 1 billion mark, we officially welcomed them to the Billionaires Club. We now have four of our seven divisions producing profits in excess of ZAR 1 billion. This year, post unbundling of Food Service business, trading profit is similar to pre-unbundling levels. The group is generating more cash and returns are also significantly higher. We're very, very proud of these achievements, and I must extend my congratulations to the various teams across the group. In relation to our international growth strategy, we've increased the scale of our UK and FM operations with the acquisitions that we did in the fourth quarter of the previous financial year.
Post year-end, we expanded our footprint into Australia, and I'll touch on BIC in a bit more detail towards the end of the presentation. If I go on to the next slide, and just touch on some highlights for the financial year under review. Trading profit at ZAR 9.7 billion was up 23% with really extraordinary performances from the Trade division, Services SA, Services International, Branded Products, Commercial Products and Automotive. I think just to provide some context around these results, I thought I'd give you some numbers and just really going back to 2019 so that you can understand what the teams have delivered. In 2019, trading profit was ZAR 6.7 billion. In 2021, trading profit was ZAR 7.9 billion. Today we posted ZAR 9.7 billion. It's almost as if that 2020 year, you know, didn't even exist.
When we say these results are extraordinary, they really, really are. Our trading margin at 9.7% is well up from 8.9% in the prior year. Operating expenses are up only 4.7%, way below inflation, and this is testament to the excellent cost management across the group. Cash generation was solid, with 80% of trading profits converted to cash. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we remain focused on bringing down our debt level. I'm very proud to report that net debt to EBITDA has reduced from 1.8 times in the prior year to 1.5 times. We remain focused on maximizing returns. You know that Bidvest is a business. We run our businesses, our subsidiaries to maximize returns. Again, I'm proud to report a solid increase in overall returns.
ROFE has improved from 31.6% in the prior year to 37.6%. ROIC at 17% is nicely up from 14% in the prior year. Over and above the improvement in ROIC year-on-year, it's important to highlight that in the prior year, we generated a 14% ROIC against a WACC of 10.5%. Today we're comparing a 17% return against a WACC of 12.5%. While the WACC is up about 2%, you can clearly still see that we've managed to widen that gap or spread between ROIC and WACC, increasing economic value for shareholders. In terms of headline earnings, normalized HEPS is up 24%, and the total dividend for the year at ZAR 7.44 per share is up 24%. I'm sure this will be well received by our shareholders. At this point, I'd like to hand over to Mark for the financial overview.
Thank you, Mpumi, and good afternoon, everyone. It's phenomenal, I'd like to say a special thank you to all those involved in the production of these results. They're a reflection of a lot of hard work. Fortunately, with no interruptions from COVID this time around. A big thank you to all the Bidvest teams and our auditors, PwC, for their tireless efforts. As Mpumi indicated, we're really pleased with these results. Six of the seven divisions performed very well, benefiting from strong organic domestic growth and supported by organic and acquisitive growth offshore. While the operational impact of COVID did unwind significantly in quarter four, and most companies or economies are fully open, the resulting supply chain constraints are still here. This has impacted inventory delivery cycles and pricing.
The impact of inflation, fuel costs, interest, and exchange rate movements being driven out of the events in Europe and more broadly are being actively managed. Significant targeted funding management took place during the year. This has improved our debt capacity and maturity profile, while at the same time limiting our downside risk on high interest rates. In terms of acquisitions, we closed a number of transactions this year with Mayflower in PHS, which is a hygiene consumables business, A Squared in consumable products, which is an electric forklifts and battery business, and Service Royale in Steiner, which is a hygiene service business. Post year-end, we concluded the acquisition of BIC in Australia for 163 AUD, which is predominantly a cleaning business for A-grade properties.
We're really excited about the opportunities this will bring to expand our current services offerings into this new geography. Our pipeline is looking positive, and the four bolt-ons we integrated into Noonan UK last year have performed really well. They've significantly enhanced Noonan UK's scale, with some national wins being made as a consequence. There were also a few disposals in the financial services space which have been finalized. In terms of the group's divisions, you will now see in the results the split of the services division into Services International, which houses our FM and hygiene services worldwide, and Services SA, which focuses on domestic security, travel and hospitality and related allied services. There are now therefore seven divisions reflected in our results.
From an accounting perspective, the only material IFRS change to highlight is the hedge accounting adopted for our currency swaps, which we use to hedge our international bond, and these are now reflected on our balance sheet. With this as a backdrop, let's now have a look at the detailed results. From a revenue perspective, up 13.2% to ZAR 99.9 billion. We're going to have to save the ZAR 100 billion level for next year. It's really good to see strong top-line growth returning. We saw double-digit revenue growth in Services International, Services South Africa, as well as Freight and Automotive. Branded Products benefited from strong pharmaceutical volumes and good growth across the balance of the division.
While Commercial Products produced a good growth off a very high base from last year, and this despite some supply chain constraints. Financial Services was impacted by low net interest income as well as non-interest revenue. To properly understand the group revenue, though, you do need to unpack the divisional detail, which we'll do later in the presentation. From a gross profit margin perspective, gross profit margin down slightly to 30% versus 30.8% in the prior year. This is largely a mix impact due to the significantly increased revenues or revenue levels from lower margin distribution business. So that was in Freight, increased travel revenue, in Services SA, and then in the U.K., increased FM demand in Noonan and normalizing hygiene revenues in PHS. From an expense perspective, we regard our expense performance as a particular highlight.
Operating expenses up just 4.7% versus our revenue increase of 13.2%. As a consequence, the expense ratio has improved to 20.5% versus 22.1% last year. This also includes the impact of higher net impairment losses and restructuring costs, which we've taken in the bank. There's a continued strong focus on cost containment right across the group, which you can see coming through these results. In terms of our trading profit, overall trading profit up 23.3% to ZAR 9.7 billion. There's another number there that we're gonna have to target next year. Just saying. But we're very happy with this as it represents, you know, strong double-digit growth across all divisions except financial services and very good underlying organic growth.
Services SA was outstanding, benefiting from the rebound of tourism, hospitality, and the catering sectors. The freight results were also very strong, benefiting from high maize and mineral export volumes and an LPG contribution, which averaged for the full year as opposed to eight months in the prior. Commercial products benefited from market share gains and exceptional margin and expense management. In branded products, they were boosted by Adcock record performance, well supported by data print and packaging and our office product segment. Automotive benefited from improved new vehicle revenue and an enhanced margin focus. Services International delivered very strong results with offshore operations performing very well, including the benefit of the prior year acquisitions, and SA was solid.
Financial services result was disappointing, and we've taken a number of very deliberate steps to ensure that this performance is rectified in the new year. From a finance charge perspective, finance costs, interest costs were up 8.3%, including the IFRS 16 impact and fair value adjustments and hedge costs. Borrowing costs on their own, excluding IFRS 16 up 11.3%, and that largely reflects slightly higher gross debt levels, due to the international bond, and then a slight step-up in our funding costs. Overall, our EBITDA interest cover remains very conservative at 9.8 times. In terms of other costs, acquisition costs are up on the back of the bond that we did last year, and then higher levels of corporate activity.
Then customer amortization is also up as a result of the bolt-on acquisitions, which have obviously annualized or averaged in for the full year. That was out of Noonan, UK. From a tax perspective, tax rate at 30% versus 28.9% has increased significantly, and mainly due to a deferred tax impact stemming from higher UK tax rates. The UK tax rates have moved from 19% to 25%, and that effectively had moved our overall group tax by almost 3%, offsetting the benefit we have from the lower tax jurisdictions. We have adjusted for the deferred tax impact in our normalized HEPS calculation.
In terms of net capital items, we had a capital profit this year of ZAR 177 million, largely stemming from the profit on sale of Namibian properties of ZAR 166 million, and this versus a loss last year of ZAR 180 million, which included the disposal of Ontime Automotive in the UK. In terms of our HEPS up 21.9% to ZAR 14.42. Normalized HEPS, which excludes acquisition costs, the amortization of acquired customer contracts, and the deferred tax impact I referenced earlier, was up 24%. This is a real measure of our performance. There've been no material COVID-19 costs in the current year.
Our dividends are up 24% to a total dividend of ZAR 7.44 for the year, and this is on a cover ratio of 2.15 times, which is within our policy range of 2-2.5 times normalized HEPS. Moving now to our balance sheet and our debt and funding. We maintain a conservative and consistent approach with respect to debt. Our gross debt is at ZAR 23.5 billion for the year, so up ZAR 2.8 billion, largely off the back of the international bond, which we did last year. And 80%-85% rather of our gross debt is long-term, and 52% of this is subject to fixed rates.
We're very pleased with this because it's quite a big move from last year, and given the dramatic hardening in interest rates that we've seen, it's good to be more in fixed than in variable. In terms of our net debt, which is after cash and cash equivalents, it's down ZAR 3.5 billion to ZAR 12 billion from ZAR 15.5 billion last year. I think this is a good reflection of the cash generation across the group, which has been very positive. We're comfortably within both our covenants. If we look at our net debt, EBITDA, it's sitting at 1.5 times versus 1.8 times last year, which is a really good improvement versus a covenant of 3 times.
In terms of our EBITDA interest cover, as I mentioned earlier, at 9.8 times versus 9.4 times last year and a covenant of 3.5 times. Our average cost of debt at 4.0% is 4.7% pre-tax, so slightly up on last year. We've done a fair amount of funding activity during the year, with both the new offshore syndicated loan of GBP 400 million and the Maiden International bond for $800 million, which were both referenced in our previous presentation. The funding from these was used to efficiently create more funding capacity with longer maturity cycle or with more fixed rate exposure. In June 2022, we did a small domestic bond raise, which is our first post-COVID of ZAR 1.1 billion.
It was very well received, more than 4 times oversubscribed, and we received very good rates. Just in terms of general M&A capacity from a funding perspective, we've got good facilities in play. Offshore, just over GBP 256 million available, and this is after the BIC transaction which took place after year-end, and then in SA, in excess of ZAR 23 billion. In terms of our interest cover graph, you can see the stability of our interest cover. It's been steadily improving over the last 5-6 years, and so it's nice and consistent. The reduced net debt is a function of the good cash management, especially in the second half of the year. Our debt maturity profile, as I mentioned earlier, has extended nicely.
There are no sizable maturities in the near term, and the RCF term loan reflected in 2025 has a further two-year extension option. We've got relatively balanced domestic maturities. Moving now to our cash flow. Cash flow in a Bidvest presentation is always a highlight. Very happy that we're seeing a revision back to pre-COVID cash flows, which mirrors strongly improved trading. Our cash generated by operations before working capital at ZAR 12.8 billion is nicely up from ZAR 11.3 billion last year. We've seen a working capital absorption of ZAR 1.4 billion for the year versus a release last year of ZAR 2.4 billion. This year's absorption, which is an investment largely in our inventory, reflects trading volumes that have increased and also some delays from a supply chain perspective.
We are holding in certain of our trading businesses higher levels of safety stock. The second half pleasingly did produce a ZAR 1.3 billion release of working capital, and this then reflects the resumption of our normal working capital cycle with absorption in the first half and then release in the second. The increase in our debtors and creditors balances largely mirrors the improved trading that we can see, and they offset one another. From a CapEx spend perspective, CapEx has increased to ZAR 3 billion. Very pleased about that because we are now. What it reflects is an increase in a higher level of investment into our capacity and expansion opportunities. A mix of investments in this.
Some factory capacity that we've built up, some additional properties that we are developing, and then within the freight space, two larger CapExes in the liquid bulk arena. We've also seen an overall net growth in funding of ZAR 2 billion for the group which follows the international bond and the small domestic issue. Both were achieved at very good rates. In terms of our cash generation, the second half, as I mentioned earlier, does reflect the resumption of the normal cash flow and working capital cycle. You saw a predicted release of working capital in the second half. The working capital management across the group has been good, albeit that we are holding extra inventory in relation to the supply chain constraints that we are seeing.
Our cash conversion at 86% is good, and so while down a bit on the 143% we saw after the COVID release last year, is well above our pre-COVID position of 65%. We're very happy with that result. Just some final concluding thoughts. 2022 reflects a further strong return to normal across the broad spread of the group's businesses. Travel and hospitality have picked up again, and the forward-looking international bookings are very positive. Return to work outside maybe the financial services sector is largely complete. Our financial position is strong with good funding capacity for growth, both locally and offshore. The acquisition of BIC in Australia post year-end represents an exciting opportunity for the group to extend our international presence, and we continue to actively seek out new acquisition opportunities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you for that. That takes us to our operational overview, and I'm going to start with the Services International Division. Revenue here, ZAR 27 billion, up 27%. Very strong top-line growth, with strong organic growth coming out of Noonan and PHS. UK revenue was bolstered by the acquisitions that came on in the fourth quarter. We've got a full 12-month contribution in the numbers, of Axis and Cordant. Gross margin was slightly down, and this is really due to a contract secured by the facilities management business in South Africa, which was mobilized in the last quarter of the financial year. We took on additional costs in the mobilization phase. Once stabilized, profitability will improve and margins will also improve. We're not worried about that.
Cost control was excellent, with expenses up only 4%, significantly below average inflation across South Africa, UK and Ireland. This translated into a trading profit of ZAR 3 billion, up 15%, an excellent result for the division, our biggest division at a trading profit level by far. Operating margin at 11% was down from 12% in the prior year, and I've explained the margin impact earlier. Cash generation and cash conversion was strong and ROFE at 203% is excellent. Our hygiene and essence businesses are high return businesses, you know, so you must expect ROFEs at that level. If I give some operational highlights, trading profit between our FM and hygiene businesses is now almost equally split. Our FM business in South Africa delivered solid results.
Office occupancies were up, but I must indicate that they are still significantly below pre-COVID levels. This is obviously mainly in kind of your financial services and corporate sector, not necessarily across the board, the way that Mark had explained earlier. In SA, our FM business is building expertise in the telecommunications sector, and we are seeing an increase in new business wins in the sector as a result of this effort. Offshore, our FM business, Noonan, delivered an outstanding organic result. Their operations in Ireland in particular delivered a really brilliant organic result. The UK operations also grew organically but were materially boosted by the acquisitions of Axis and Quorum. Our hygiene business in South Africa, Steiner, delivered a solid performance, and their core hygiene pool continues to grow.
Steiner also acquired Service Royale, which expands their footprint in the KZN region. Our hygiene business in the UK, PHS, delivered an excellent performance. Their hygiene pool also continues to grow, and the acquisition of Mayflower will enhance PHS's consumable offering. Lastly, across FM and hygiene, we are seeing a drop in high margin COVID work. This is coming through in the fourth quarter of the year, as all COVID restrictions have been dropped across South Africa, the UK and Ireland. Overall, a really fantastic result from the services team and really excellent, and this team must be congratulated.
If I move to branded product, revenue at ZAR 19 billion is up 10%, driven primarily by an increase in demand for over-the-counter and consumer products in Adcock Ingram, a normalized back to school season, an increase in office, school and university occupancies, and also increased volumes in the travel and tourism industry. Again, excellent cost control with expenses up 5% below South Africa's inflation, which closed at 7.4% at the end of June. In this division, you see this operating leverage come through strongly, where a 7% increase in revenue translated into a 23% increase in trading profit at ZAR 1.9 billion. All businesses in the division increased profit year on year, which is really outstanding. The trading profit margin also increased from 8.2% in the prior year to 9.8%.
ROFE at 29.6% is up from 24% in the prior year, and cash generated from operations was excellent. Just some operational highlights. Adcock delivered record results, also breaching the ZAR 1 billion profit mark entering the Billionaires Club. This team must be congratulated as well. These results were driven by the increased demand in OTC and consumer products, which I alluded to earlier. Over and above this, as all COVID restrictions were dropped in South Africa, we saw a marked increase in elective surgeries, doctors visits, dentistry visits, et cetera. All of that increased activity and demand contributed to the numbers. Office product cluster delivered a standout performance, and this was driven by a normalized back to school season, an increase in occupancies across offices, schools and universities.
We were also able to deliver to this increased demand because we had stock. The Data Print and Packaging cluster delivered an excellent performance, driven by an increase in demand for print and packaging products in the recovering travel and tourism sector. We also saw packaging products into the online delivery space increasing. We're also surprised by an increase in purchase of gold, which benefited Package Data. Lastly, the consumer products cluster faced headwinds, and this was mainly due to constrained consumer spending. Notwithstanding this, the businesses really just did well to contain costs and increase profitability year on year. Interbrand in particular was a standout performer as they leveraged recovery in the travel industry. I'd like to really congratulate the branded products team for what is a fantastic set of results.
If I move to Freight, revenue at ZAR 4 billion is up 20%, and this is driven by volume increases across majority of our bulk commodities. We now have a full 12-month contribution from our LPG terminal, and we also saw a significant rebound in Australian ore business. Operating expenses were up 2.8%, but comparably, on a comparable basis, they increased 6.4%, which is excellent. Trading profit at ZAR 1.8 billion is up 37% on prior year, and the trading margin increased from 20.9% to 23.0%. A ROFE of 34.6% for a CapEx intensive business is really excellent, and this compares to a 31% ROFE in the prior year. Some operational highlights.
Our terminal operations in South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia all outperformed, each one of them without exception. This outperformance was on the back of increased volumes of chrome, manganese, May, copper concentrate, iron ore, coal, et cetera. Really fantastic volume increases. LPG profit contribution of 12 months compares with the 8-month contribution in the prior year. Recovery in BIL exceeded expectations, and this was driven by new business and also significant recovery from customers who were impacted by the COVID restrictions in the prior year. We continue to look ahead in this division. We continue to remain focused on making sure that we invest in the future. CapEx investments are always on our radar. I'm happy to report that the board approved ZAR 1 billion CapEx to build an inland LPG terminal and also multipurpose tanks in Richards Bay.
Lastly, just on freight, you know, I'd like to remind everyone that the primary operations of this division are in KZN, with our major terminal operations at the Durban port. For this division to have delivered these results, notwithstanding the riots in July, which were in KZN, the floods in April, which were also in KZN, we had Bayhead Road that collapsed, and so entry into the port was impossible for some time. Then there was also a cyber attack on Transnet, which also delayed, or impacted efficiency. I really want to commend the team for dealing with all the global headwinds, but also the KZN specific issues that were really beyond their control. The freight team must really be congratulated for an exceptional year.
If I move to Commercial Products, revenue at ZAR 15 billion is up 7% on prior, driven by increased trade sales, large CapEx sales into the agriculture and online industry, and also large orders from the retail industry, and mainly the clothing industry. Our sales into the renewable sector have increased materially. We also opened 15 new Plumblink branches and 16 new Camp & Climb stores. Outstanding cost control, with expenses contained to 3% growth. It's really amazing. Again, we see that operating leverage coming through. A 7% increase in revenue translating into 27% increase in trading profit, with a large majority of the businesses in the division increasing profit year-on-year.
Again, if I can just provide a bit of context in terms of what this division has been able to achieve, posting a trading profit of ZAR 1.2 billion. Just to remind you that in the previous financial year, Commercial Products increased profit by 135%, and now profits are up 20%. This is really amazing. The trading margin at 7.8% is up from 6.6% in the prior year. ROF at 31% is materially up on the prior year ROF of 25.5%, and cash generation was also excellent. Operationally, the trade cluster delivered an outstanding result, with the electrical business delivering record profits. We're still seeing continued outperformance from Plumbing. The catering cluster was down on prior year. However, Campai outperformed.
The leisure warehousing, and general products clusters delivered superb results, notwithstanding the supply chain disruptions, with Burtex and Yamaha exceeding expectations. The DIY and packaging clusters delivered excellent trading results on the back of increased demand and stock availability. We invested additional CapEx in the factory in G.ox, and we're very happy to report that expansion created an additional 400 jobs, something we're really proud of. We also acquired A-Squared Forklifts in August 2022, and this acquisition increases our market share in the forklift hire space and also introduces electric forklifts to our product offering in line with our sustainability strategy. I'd really like to congratulate the commercial products team for what is an extraordinary result.
If I move to Southern Africa, revenue at ZAR 8.2 billion is up 14% on prior, driven by a significant rebound in travel and tourism, increased office, school and university occupancies, and the lifting of all COVID restrictions in South Africa. Cost control was just outstanding, with expenses increasing only 2.6%. Trading profit at ZAR 818 million is up 37%, and the trading margin has increased from 9% in the prior year to 10.7%. Returns in the division continue to improve and ROFE at 121% is significant, significantly up on the prior year's 84% ROFE. Operationally, the turnaround in the hospitality and catering cluster was significant, and this was driven by an increase in travel volume, and obviously occupancies, across offices, schools and universities.
Our lounges business continues to grow, and we're happy to have opened a new airside lounge at Lanseria Airport. Security and aviation cluster delivered an exceptional result driven by new contract wins. UDS delivered a standout top-line result, having secured a number of new contracts. This increase in new business in UDS enabled us to create 150 permanent jobs for young people. The rebound in the travel cluster really far exceeded expectations, and there's probably three reasons for this, really big turnaround, in their numbers. The first one is the restructure, which we started pre-COVID. I mean, you'd recall, I'm sure every year we've been talking about the restructure in the travel cluster.
We started looking at our IT infrastructure, how we could streamline back office systems and processes, and really now we're seeing the results of that. Operations are certainly far more efficient, and we're also seeing increased levels of productivity. The other two contributors for the travels result for the travel cluster's result is the increase in volume. On a domestic level, domestic travel volumes are up at about 80% of pre-COVID volumes. International travel volumes are also up, but only at around 25% of pre-COVID volume. Lastly, the allied cluster delivered excellent trading results off the back of increased office and hotel occupancies, the resumption of conferencing and banqueting events. We're seeing clients going back and having face-to-face or in-room conferences again. That's been good for this cluster.
We also saw increased water and coffee sales. Overall, to the Services SA team, a big congratulations. They delivered a really incredible set of results. Moving to automotive. The division delivered record-breaking revenue and profit, with just about all brands up on prior. Revenue at ZAR 23.7 billion is up 12% due to an increase in new vehicle and after-sales revenue, and there's also some inflation in that revenue increase. Expenses increased more than inflation, but the increase in expenses remains below the increase in revenue. Trading profit at ZAR 819 million is up 26%. An exceptional performance given the material shortage of new and used cars, increasing interest rates and constrained disposable income. Again, just to give some context in terms of what the team has delivered.
In the 2021 financial year, profit increased by 267%, and now trading profit is up a further 26%. Really outstanding. The trading profit margin is 3.5%, up from 3.1% in the prior year. Roughly at 50% is the highest return this division has ever produced. This must be seen, though within the context of reduced funds employed, as a result of the vehicle supply shortages. Notwithstanding that, I must still commend the team for producing a really outstanding return. Operationally, new vehicle sales were up 11%, exceeding overall dealer market sales that were up 8.6%. We've had some market share gains from a new vehicle perspective. The consumer is under pressure, and we can see this.
It's coming through buy-down patterns that we're seeing, and we're also seeing market shares of your entry-level, more affordable brands increasing. Used vehicle revenue increased despite unit volumes declining by 10%. The shortage of new vehicle stock continues to place enormous pressure on the availability and pricing of the used vehicle. After-sales reflected growth, mostly due to increased traffic volume and the lifting of all COVID restrictions. All franchises, bar one, produced really excellent trading profit growth. The one that didn't, it was really because of supply chain constraints. If we had stock, that particular brand would have also delivered in line with its peers. If I go to the last division, financial services, the division had an extremely difficult year.
The results are disappointing, but it's important for us to unpack the reason for these results. Let's start at the top. Revenue at ZAR 2.4 billion is down 8%. That's not catastrophic. It's not like we've got this massive issue, but it is down 8%. There's a reason for the reduction in revenue is reduced non-interest revenue. We're also seeing a lack of new leasing contracts as some clients are choosing to extend existing contracts. In fact, some of our own larger clients have given us extensions and are choosing to push out the leasing cycle. Credit approved payouts in the bank were delayed due to vehicle shortages, so unfortunately, some of those deals have been moved over to the new financial year.
Forex revenue showed signs of recovery, so we did see an increase in volumes in the second half of the year. If you recall what I said when I spoke to the travel commentary, international travel volumes are only at 25% of pre-COVID levels. There's still significant recovery that we're hoping to see from an FX perspective. Overall insurance revenue was flat year-over-year. The division's growth profit actually improved by 3.5%, so that was good. The challenges that we experienced, which really resulted in the trading profit number that you see, are really as follows. The first one is that expenses increased significantly, and this is due to large impairment charges that were raised in the bank.
Now, the banking industry took their impairment knock in 2020, and unfortunately, we had a lag effect in Bidvest Bank. We're only seeing our impairment cost coming through the books in the 2022 financial year. You know, I'd probably say that you have to think about the bank's result in relation to where the banking industry results were in the 2020 year, and that impairment charge was quite significant. We've also taken some one-off costs, and this is mainly around write-offs that we've taken in Multi-currency and Tradeflow, when we closed those operations.
In our life insurance business, expenses and acquisition costs increased at a faster pace than revenue, so the expected profit contribution from this business did not materialize. Then the other big impact was the investment portfolio, which declined ZAR 100 million on the back of market volatility. If you think about the fact that this division delivered profits of about ZAR 333 million, I think it was last year, ZAR 100 million negative is material. Those are really the main reasons why we've had a trading profit result of ZAR 86 million, which is 74% below prior year. Outside of the trading results of the bank and Bidvest Life, FinGlobal delivered in line with expectations. The short-term insurance business delivered a good result, and Compendium delivered an excellent result. We've put this year behind us. We have.
We've spent the fourth quarter of the financial year focused on solidifying the strategy for the 2023 year and also getting ready for implementation on the first of July. Some of the things to look out for and to expect from the division going forward, the bank is going 100% digital. We've closed our remaining branches effective 31 August. All transacting, all engagements, all communication with the bank is 100% digital. A strong new business pipeline has been built and capital deployment from 1 July has been positive. To enable improved capital deployment in the bank, sales teams have been further resourced, our credit process has been reviewed and we've streamlined and optimized those processes, and we've also identified new markets, we've also made sure that it's got the requisite skills and expertise on board.
The bank's balance sheets remain strong and liquid, adequately capitalized. In fact, we're overcapitalized well above regulatory requirements, so we've got the capacity for growth. The capacity to grow is there. Lastly, expense management across the division is under tight control. As part of the portfolio cleanup in the division, we've closed the Bureau de Change in Namibia so that the team can focus on the South African operations. We've exited Cannon Asset Management. We've signed an agreement to sell dWeb, which is our pension administration business. This transaction is awaiting FSCA approval. As I alluded to earlier, we've closed Master Currency and Tradeflow. Before I close out the commentary on the financial services division, I'd like to comment on the investigation into the life insurance industry by the Competition Commission.
Take the recent actions by the commission very seriously, in particular, the actions of the tenth day of August. We are not aware of any wrongdoing in the life business. As you know, we hold ourselves to a very high standard of ethics and good corporate governance, and as such, we are cooperating transparently and fully with this investigation. While we're continuing to engage closely with the commission, it is premature for me to provide any speculative comment at this stage until the investigation has made further progress. At the moment, there's nothing more to say. Moving on to the next slide. The Bidvest value proposition. I mean, this slide really talks to our proposition both from a financial and a non-financial aspect. The financial pieces, Mark has dealt with in a lot of detail, so I won't repeat those.
I'd like to spend a bit of time just highlighting the non-financial aspects which are important that we focus on and that also drive the results. I mean, the chairman in his opening spoke to some of these. Maybe I'll give you a little bit of color and lift up one or two. Diversity and inclusion remains a big focus for us. It is important that it doesn't matter where we operate. In every single jurisdiction, our operations must reflect the demographics of that country. Just to give you some numbers, we've made some good progress. At a group board perspective, representation at the board is now 83% Black and 75% female. I'd like to believe that we're probably the most representative board on the JSE. At Exco level, we haven't had any material changes. No change from last year.
Representation is 50% Black at Exco and 42% female. At top and senior management, we've made some progress with our top and senior management team, so 45% Black and 34% female. People with disabilities now make up just over 1,000 of our employee base. This is up from 790 employees with disabilities last year. We've invested more than ZAR half a billion on our people across various training programs, internships, bursary programs, et cetera. Job creation is important, especially in South Africa, where we've got such high levels of unemployment. It's important that as we grow, we create more jobs. I'm happy to report that we've absorbed permanently 406 learners across our various programs.
During the divisional commentary, I did highlight the 400 people that have been employed into the G4 factory and the 115 new drone pilots that we employed in UDS. In our travel business, as we continue to rebound and recover, we're also able to reemploy a significant number of people back into the travel industry. We do a lot internally, but our focus also extends externally to the communities we touch and the communities that our own people come from. That's why we spent ZAR 150 million on various community programs across the country. This number also includes support that we gave our staff and communities during the floods and riots in KZN.
One of the things we are really proud of is to have spent an extra ZAR 3 billion procuring goods and services from Black-owned and Black women-owned SME businesses. The SME sector in South Africa is important. Growing the economy of this country is also based on growing the SME sector. Big business in general had to play a lot, a very big role in terms of supporting SMEs in South Africa. For us to have increased procurement by ZAR 3 billion is a big number. To date, our spend with SMEs is sitting at ZAR 8 billion. Lastly, in terms of sustainability, we've made good progress in achieving the goal set in our new ESG framework. Several projects are underway across most of our businesses, including grey water wash bays, electric in PHS, recycling activity across various businesses.
With our Business Property portfolio, we've got a phased plan there to, retrofit our properties with solar energy capabilities, and we're also looking at alternative water sourcing and purification options. To close out in terms of outlook, we remain bullish for the coming year. I don't know, maybe it's the salesperson in me. At the beginning of a financial year, you start running, and you start running quickly so that you can finish strong. Some of the areas where we are seeing green shoots are as follows. We expect further uplifts from our businesses impacted, in the travel and tourism sector. I've spoken about recovery of those businesses, but they still remain below pre-COVID levels. We think that as that sector continues to recover, our businesses will also, get that uplift.
Other growth areas include private sector infrastructure projects that we are seeing come through, renewables and alternative energy projects. The president lifted the 100 MW cap on self-generation, and with that cap gone, we're really confident that we're going to see activity increase from the renewables sector. There are sectors in South Africa that are doing well. Online sector is doing well, mining, agriculture, and as long as these industries remain buoyant, we're a big supplier of product into these industries, and we're also a big supplier of services into the industry. Acquisitions that we've concluded will enhance our market growth and consolidation in those specific niche areas. Of course, the big one is BIC, our first entry in facilities management into Australia, and we now have a platform for both FM and hygiene expansion. The BIC executive team is really good.
We love that team. They're led by their CEO, Tony, and they're really good, these people. Very excited to have them on board and are excited about the growth prospects in Australia. I've spoken to financial services. We do expect a material recovery in this division. Plans are in place, and now it's about execution. The major downside looking forward is inflation. You know, higher costs are coming through both on our cost of revenue lines and fixed lines. The focus for all our businesses is going to be margin, margin. We have to protect the margin. Operating in a high inflation environment is not new to us, so I'm very confident that our businesses will do what they need to do. We know what our levers are. We know that efficiency is going to be important.
Making sure that we extract all efficiencies out of our operations will be key. Price increases need to be passed on. Products need to be repriced without compromising sales, and we need to control our costs. Our guys know what levers they need to pull, so we're very comfortable that they'll do what needs to be done. As I close, I'd like to extend a big thank you to the best management team across South Africa, the U.K., Ireland and Spain, who delivered these spectacular results. I'd also like to thank the Bidvest Exco team who lead with amazing energy and absolute focus on the goal, and they also lead with a love and care for the 120,000+ people who make Bidvest work. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mpumi, for that. Claudia, can I hand it over to you to just run the audience through the process to list questions, and then we can take those questions on the website first. Claudia?
Okay. Noted. Thank you, ma'am. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your touchtone phone or on the keypad on your screen. If you decide to withdraw the question, please press star and then two to remove yourself from the list. Again, if you have dialed in and you'd like to ask a question, please press star and then one. We will pause to see if there are any questions.
Thanks, Claudia. Let me start with the questions on the line. Firstly, Mpumi, maybe this one is for you. The question is on the possible partnerships under consideration in Freight. Will this be South African-based partnership?
Yes. The partnerships that we're looking at are in South Africa. It's too early for me to be able to disclose anything, but it's potential PPPs that we are looking at. In Namibia, it's not so much a partnership, but there is an expansion there because we've secured a 10-year lease, and so we are looking at expanding those operations. Yeah, the partnerships specifically that we refer to would be SA based.
Thank you, Mpumi. Maybe Mark, one for you. In the Automotive division, there's been market share gains. Was this brand specific mix of high and low entry level luxury, and how defensible are these market share positions, when the supply chain constraints normalize?
The supply chain normalizing is gonna be an interesting one. It's one we're watching very, very closely. I think we're all desperate to get new vehicles or more new vehicles back into the system. That will obviously alleviate some of the pressure on the second-hand. I mean, whether we can maintain those market share gains, I think we can. I think the sectors where we have seen expansion are ones where we have good representation. Obviously the impact of the floods from a Toyota perspective had a material impact to the group just because it's a significant proportion of our overall new vehicle component, if you like. I think we're able to hold those market shares. There are other areas where we may not.
We're not necessarily strongly represented at this point that we are looking at as well.
Thank you, Mark. Maybe to add to that, I know the commercial vehicle side of our business also showed some nice growth there. Mark, while we're with you. Another question is, in terms of the impairments in financial services, the question is there a specific sector that you saw these impairment charges in? Do you think the risk mitigation control measures are now in place to adequately prevent any of these sort of material losses in the future?
I think, I mean, those impairments took place primarily in sort of two sectors, the first one being the transportation sector, and the second, to some extent, in the public sector, municipal related. Are the control processes in place to mitigate? Absolutely. I mean, we've done a lot of work in terms of looking at our credit process and making sure that it's adequately beefed up to try and mitigate these going forward.
Yeah. Maybe if I can just add on to that. It's not impairments across the entire book. It's just big clients, probably about four or five. It's not kind of something that's pervasive across the book.
No.
Then maybe one for you, again, also on freight and around the same lines as the earlier question. The investor's asking for some color on the Durban Port Master Plan, and specifically the relocation of the dry bulk terminal to Richards Bay. Is this going to lead to extra costs for Bidvest, or and/or are there any opportunities in this process to handle increased volume? Any indication on timeline, which you know, I will send you.
Yeah, you're correct. I mean, the Durban Port Master Plan is out. On the master plan, our Bulk Connections terminal is not there. We are having conversations at the moment with Transnet around the implications of that. I do want to emphasize that we've got a 13-year lease on that particular piece of land. We've got 13 years of life that is still there. We're having a conversation to find a win-win. The reality is that whatever we do here has to be a win-win.
Yeah.
We can't have a win-lose situation. If we're successful in relocating Bulk Connections, it has to work for us. The commercials needs to make sense. We can't take additional costs just for the sake of, and it has to be profitable because we've got a profitable business as we stand right now. We are talking to Transnet around what a win-win looks like.
Yeah. Thank you, Mpumi. Claudia, can I go back to you for questions on the line?
Thank you. At this time, there are no questions, but I would just like to remind everyone, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star and then one. We will pause to see if there are any questions on the phone lines.
While we wait for that, I don't know who's going to answer this one, but let's go. Do you believe any of your businesses and your divisions are undervalued by the market at present? Are there any thoughts around unbundling any of the divisions, such as the Services International? We should play. It's a replay button.
There's no decision to unbundle any part of the division. We'd like to grow. We don't wanna get smaller.
Yeah.
We wanna get bigger. Do we think anything is undervalued? I don't think so. Like, nothing.
Well, it's all undervalued. Otherwise, we'd just try to buy it.
I think we don't comment about the individual value of our businesses and divisions. We all have our own views about that one. All right. Another question that's coming here is around BIC and the acquisition of BIC. Some question around, could you give some color about the level of fragmentation in the FM and hygiene space, in Australia, and does BIC have a significant market share? Then the third component of the question is any guidance on the expected trading profits, for 2023, which we somehow say no to.
Yeah.
Let's deal with questions one and two please.
I mean, okay, we've answered part three. In terms of the fragmentation within the Australian market, I mean, it's finding out the market is different to how we see it in South Africa and how we see it in the UK and Ireland. I think it presents different sorts of opportunities for us. The business, BIC, that we've acquired, focus predominantly. 50% of their portfolio is on A-grade buildings, and it's the cleaning of the A-grade buildings. What the opportunity we see there is one, to obviously broaden the bundle. There are a lot of other services that we offer across our FM and hygiene services space, which are not necessarily within the BIC bundle. We'll add those. We'll expand some geographic representation.
They've got a significant proportion of the New South Wales or Sydney market, if you like, and there are opportunities to significantly expand into other major cities within the Australian environment, potentially New Zealand as well. Those are opportunities that we're really excited about. Then it's also taking technology and synergies and buying power that we have in the rest of our network in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, and moving those into Australia. Similarly, there's some very clever technology within the BIC space that we could certainly adopt in other parts of our operations. I think there's gonna be a cross-sharing between the businesses of the various levels of excellence. We're very excited that, you know, this is a nice sort of, I call it, a medium-tier platform that we can build on within that environment.
Yeah. Maybe just to add on to what Mark is saying. I mean, the big opportunities for us with BIC is around the new vertical, right? So new industries at the moment that they potentially are not in. If you think about Noonan and if you thought about Bidvest FM here, you'll hear us talking about some niches. You know, I spoke about the telecom sector in South Africa that they're pursuing. In Noonan, when we made some of the acquisitions that took us into the transport sector and so on. The rest of our businesses, we're very clear around kind of those verticals that we go in and we dominate. There's a big opportunity for the BIC to adopt a similar way in which we think about FM.
I mean, when we're talking to them, they were even talking about healthcare. They're not in healthcare. Nice vertical for them to get into. There may be others that we kind of look at. The other opportunity for us from a growth perspective is just geography. Whilst they are a national player, there is a big opportunity for us to increase our footprint and our reach, geographically. That's going to be another good opportunity. Then certainly I'd probably say in growing the bundle, you know. I mean, BIC at the moment is predominantly cleaning. For us, FM has got, it's got the cleaning, which is probably your anchor. But you need the other allied services when you then create that bundle, then you make it bigger.
They focus also on those other additional services that are complementary to FM as another big opportunity, you know. I'd say other industries, other verticals, expanding the geography and then growing the bundle.
Thank you. Claudia, can I
There are no questions on the phone lines, ma'am.
Thank you. Mark, maybe one for you. A little bit of color maybe on the property performance and the outlook for that portfolio of ours. Then the question is for some guidance around the corporate line.
There's always a question around corporate costs.
There's always a question around.
Maybe let's deal with that one now. I mean, the guidance we give around corporate costs is generally around ZAR 400 million for the year. That has remained stable over the last couple of years. You'll see the cost this year slightly increased on that, but included in that is about ZAR 70-odd million in losses that we've taken in cleaning up some of our Namibian portfolio. Certainly corporate service costs on track within that, within the guidance. From a properties point of perspective, I think this year or this 2022 year has been a pretty successful year. I mean, we haven't seen the significant impact in the property sector that we've seen in other property portfolios. We've maintained the growth in that particular portfolio.
We've got a nice, call it uplift on the book value that we reflect. If you recall that in our books, we don't mark up our property values. They're shown at cost, not at the actual market value on the properties. There's more than ZAR 4 billion in excess value sitting in that portfolio, and no plans to do anything with the portfolio, and certainly not to separately list it or raise funding against it or anything like that at this point in time. The view going forward is actually very positive. We've got a number of really nice developments that are happening at the moment. Two quite significant DCs for two of our operations which are in process. They'll be brought online towards the middle of this year.
There's been quite a lot of CapEx across the group. We've acquired a number of internal group properties, which is our strategic. That's not just in South Africa. We've acquired some in Namibia, and simultaneously, we've also acquired some in the UK as well. We are broadening that portfolio, and I think the outlook for this year is good.
Thank you for that, Mark. Mpumi, maybe for you, a question around where do you see or do you see any acquisition opportunities in commercial products or significant growth areas, maybe in that space?
I mean, we did do an acquisition. A-Squared Forklifts goes into Commercial Products, and that essentially almost doubles our share in the forklift hire space. We continue to look. I mean, if I had to talk about it locally, I'd probably say that locally, Howard is probably a bit conservative because you don't wanna overweight too much on anything with acquisitions when we're actually doing very well organically, right? We're able to expand and grow organically in South Africa, which is great. You know, I know what Howard is looking for is stuff that's complementary and kind of changes the game. You know, rather than going to buy another electrical business, you know, we'd rather grow in that space organically.
You know, we are looking for opportunities, for complementary products into commercial products. Howard is focused on trying to get an acquisition, offshore. You'll remember that in our offshore strategy, we've identified hygiene, FM, and plumbing, all related, products. We haven't found. We have been in some processes, over the last two or three years. One we walked away from. A couple of the others, even though we've looked, they don't really quite match that Plumblink type model that we're looking at. Howard is on the hunt, I can confirm that, and we are really looking offshore to see if there is a plumbing business, that we can secure. Yeah.
Thank you. For me, and maybe Mark, this one is for you. As the group expands, its international exposure, how are you planning to deal with currency risk, and are you planning on hedging a portion of offshore profit exposure?
What we have done, and it's been consistent through the years, and this year was no exception, is we match our debt that we put in play against the EBITDA earnings of the particular geography where the acquisition is done. If you take Noonan, for example, that was funded out of euro-based debt. If you take PHS, that was funded, not initially, but then post pulling the bond out of pound-based debt. We're matching pounds for pounds, euros for euros, et cetera, et cetera. We've done exactly the same in Australia for BIC. Typically what we will do is we're happy to have some currency exposure in different geographies. I think that's healthy for the group overall.
What we do is where you have material exposure to a single particular funding item, so for example, the international bond, where we'd taken the bond initially in U.S. dollars because that's the most efficient and effectively the most price effective market to raise that funding. Our actual requirement was in pounds. What we did is we swapped it for the entire period of that five-year bond for all the capital and interest exposure. We've taken out the risk in that respect. Of course, that's given rise to that IFRS 9 hedging adjustment that you'll see in the balance sheet this year. In terms of doing anything additional to that, no, we don't. Obviously at a local level in terms of our imports and things like that, in terms of imports from overseas, we hedge all of those using sort of local foreign exchange contracts.
Thank you. Thanks for that, Mark. Maybe one detailed question and then a more strategic question. Firstly, the margin in the Services International business decreased a little bit towards the back end of the financial year. Do you think this will also impact FY 2023?
When I did the Services International commentary.
Yeah.
I did touch on this. Specifically from an SA perspective, there is a significantly sized contract that we took on. We mobilized it in Q4. We took on additional costs, which we normally do with big contracts to mobilize it. Once it's stabilized, profitability then starts improving and that margin return. Overall for the division, we're not concerned. Over a twelve-month period, the division should be able to maintain margin.
Thank you for that. Maybe a bit more of a strategic, and I suspect this is the last question. What type of geographies or economic verticals are you looking to play in in the services strategy? What are your key considerations before committing to acquisitions and expansions? How do you see the exposure to the services portfolio evolving over time?
Okay. Key verticals, we've been very clear, hygiene and FM. Geographies, we're agnostic around geography. The only geography that we've carved out is rest of Africa. Outside of that, we are looking for targets, we're agnostic around geography. What are the key considerations? The first one, an important one, and we'll walk away even if the rest of the aspects of the due diligence are okay, is management. We have to acquire good management. Offshore acquisitions succeed or fail primarily around management. Making sure that we've got people who understand the industry, who understand what they're doing, who are clear around strategy, who can work independently and deliver on the expected outcome and give us a return, that's important. The management piece is very important.
The second aspect around that consideration is whether we can add value. You know, if we acquire a business and from a budget perspective, we can't add any value, then really what's the point? So we want a business where we know we can add value, whether strategically, whether in terms of capital allocation, whether in terms of working with the rest of the businesses within the group, we're just able to get that business ahead of the market. So for us, that's important. Then obviously, I mean, the other considerations are the normal ones. We do a very detailed financial due diligence. We audit the numbers, very detailed legal due diligence. You know, from a technical perspective, there's an entire stream of work and a work stream there where we have to tick all the boxes.
Of course, offshore, we're not looking for businesses that need to be fixed. We're not looking for underperforming businesses. You're not gonna see us buying businesses that are struggling. You're gonna see us buying businesses that are doing well, where we are confident that from South Africa we can add value and help them to grow.
Thanks, Mpumi. I said this is almost the last question, but we have two more here that we can maybe just quickly answer. In terms of pricing on new contracts and renewal services in South Africa, what are you seeing in pricing trends, as you said earlier? How far off pre-pandemic are office occupancies in South Africa?
I think that we need to be specific that it's professional services.
Professional services.
Yeah. It's not across the board.
Okay.
Pricing trends, yeah, there's margin squeeze. That much I can tell you. We're definitely seeing it, but it happens every year. Clients want more for less. Yes, new contracts are secured at lower margins than existing contracts. The great thing that we do have from our FM businesses is that, over time, we're able to restructure the contract, optimize it.
Mm-hmm.
Make it more efficient and extract greater margin. I mean, that's the model from an FM perspective. Whether it's here in South Africa and it's Prestige or Bidvest FM or whether it's Noonan, that model is the same. We go in, we compete. We won't take it for a margin that is on the floor. We'd rather walk away. We want a margin that we're very comfortable that we're gonna make money. It may be less than the current average margin in the business, but we must be confident that in the first year we can apply whatever efficiencies we need to and start working that margin up. Over time, you know, you get to an acceptable margin. In terms of office occupancies in professional services, look, they're very low.
I won't cite a specific name, but just to say among our bigger clients, we're seeing occupancies at around 18%, 15%. I'd probably say max is around 20%. While it's low, it's up on where we were, let's say, this time last year. That's probably double, but it's still very low. We're not expecting to get back to 100%. I mean, our clients have already told us around permanent decisions they're making for hybrid working. Some of them are already letting go of some of the buildings that they have and consolidating space. What we don't know is where that kind of ratio is going to land and normalize. At the moment, I'd probably say 20% is probably the number.
Thank you, Mpumi. Claudia, I believe there's a question on the line, so let's deal with that one.
Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Asanda Notshe from Mazi Asset Management. Please proceed with your question, Asanda.
Hi, good morning. Sorry, it's actually afternoon. I hope you can hear me.
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay, thanks. I do apologize if it's been asked. I lost my connection a bit. I just wanted to check, just generally speaking, you know, given post-COVID period, one, would you say that there has been in, let's say, the revenue numbers that you've seen generally, maybe more in SA, some benefit from market share gains, especially from clients or, sorry, competitors that have maybe fallen over? Do you have a sense of kind of what that looks like, or how much of that contributed to revenue?
I guess following from that is, you know, once you've kind of hit that base or as we go into the next year, given the macro, you know, everything that's happening in the economy and so on, where do you see growth coming from, generally speaking, again, just, let's say in the absence of some of those, you know, let's say sort of COVID-type market share gains? Thanks.
Have we seen market share gains? Yes. As a consequence, some of our competitors falling over, yes. I mean, it was something that we saw last year. It has continued to some extent. I must say that while
Yeah.
It has continued, we have seen some competitors coming back.
Mm-hmm.
It's probably a mixed bag.
Yeah.
In terms of growth.
Yeah.
Important. Well, look, I did speak about it on my last slide and indicated that we're expecting growth to come out of the recovery of the travel and tourism industry.
Mm-hmm.
We're expecting mining, agriculture and online industry to remain buoyant. We're expecting the renewable
Mm-hmm.
Alternative energy sector to increase in terms of activity because of the drop of the 100 MW cap on self-generation.
Resumption of financial services off a very low base obviously give us a bit of a kick for next year. Hopefully some private sector spend will start to come back into the system. We've seen some good private sector spend this year. It would be very nice to see some public sector as well. Okay. No, cool. Thanks. Last one. The sort of... I think you mentioned it now in terms of the 100 MW, or actually removal of all caps, but specifically on the sort of whole discussion around LNG economy, if you will, and maybe, I guess, green hydrogen and all that kind of stuff, is there any? Are there any opportunities for you there? Anything that you'd maybe look to do, or participate in potentially?
Nothing directly. I mean, indirectly, I mean, obviously we supply componentry, electrical componentry and cable and that type of stuff into the industry. Obviously anything that gets imported for example, an LNG plant, we could handle through our freight businesses, et cetera. There's no specific push from our side on LNG at the moment.
Okay, great. Thank you so much.
Mpumi, and maybe let's close it off with this question. Freight had a fantastic year in terms of activity. What do we think in terms of activity? What does it look like from our guys on the ground? Mark, whichever one wants to take this one.
I mean, look, some of the big sectors that we benefited from last year, so talking specifically grain volumes, specifically on maize exports, and also the mineral exports. Those sectors remain very strong at the moment. You know, what we saw from last year has continued into this year. Do we expect it to be at the same level? It's gonna be tough. I mean, I don't know what the end of the road is on the mineral side. That seems to be keep pushing. Certainly grains since last year were very high. Don't expect them to be at the same level again.
It'll be interesting to see what happens on the mix, because I think it's very much dependent on not only your maize volumes, but also your wheat volumes. It'll be interesting to see what that mix does in the current year. We're coming off a very high base.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you to the team. I think this, as the questions sort of came through, it's clear that a scale business in all the different verticals and sectors of the economy is really what you get within a Bidvest portfolio with some interesting offshore growth opportunities continuing to be pursued. Thanks to the team and thank you for everyone on the line that took the time to join us for this presentation this aftrnoon.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference. Thank you very much for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.