Welcome to shareholders, investors, other parties joining us for our financial year-end results presentation. This is a pre-recorded results presentation. As per normal with webcasts, I would ask you to start sending questions in as soon as you are ready, and we will try our best to answer all of them at the end of the results presentation. We will follow up with you on specific matters we are unable to handle appropriately. The presentation of our full year results could take about 50 minutes and will be available by link on our website post this presentation. I'm supported by our Financial Director, Graeme Sim, in today's presentation. In delivering these results today, we believe our company has accelerated and shown resilience and innovation in a third consecutive challenging trading year, in which we would seem to have stayed ahead of the pack.
The agenda for the day is on your screen, we cover strategy, milestones, operational updates, financial performance, segmental reviews, and end with balance sheet movements, after which questions will be handled. In terms of our purpose, strategy, and strategic initiatives, I will again reiterate that we are sticking to what we do well. As can be seen on the slide, the four main pillars of our business plan are growth, optimization, leveraging culture and diversity, and digitization. On all fronts, we are accelerating and executing. Although the business plan execution remains largely unchanged year-on-year, I would like to re-emphasize a few areas of importance. The growth pillar remains focused on diversification while growing volume and value, i.e., market share. Our optimization initiatives are positively impacting our bottom line and are ultimately focused on labor, stock, margin, and operational effectiveness.
We continue to invest time and effort into our culture and people. We strongly believe this will result in continuous performance and acceleration over the medium term. A number of digitization initiatives are progressing and focused on the way we interface with our agricultural customer on a B2B basis, as well as our general retail customers on a B2C basis, while at the same time modernizing our ERP system. Top hundred refers to top hundred customer focus, and bot hundred refers to potential hundred customers. The outcomes we would like to achieve include, firstly, continuously improving ROIC and EVA. Secondly, an annually adjusted growth target catering for a CPI plus recurring headline earnings per share growth. Thirdly, a medium-term, big, hairy, audacious goal of ZAR 1 billion in profit before tax by the year F25, which includes M&A activity.
At this point, I might just mention that we have achieved a compound annual growth rate in reoccurring headline earnings per share of 15.5% since F19 pre-COVID, contrary to a number of other retail role players, and probably ahead of the pack. Also over 15% over the last 11 years, showing a good level of consistency. As we are nearing the F25 period, the medium-term goal review for F30 will commence with the board in May 2023. In terms of group structure and shareholding, this has not changed since our previous presentation, although the changes have occurred, firstly in TFC operations with the additional PEG Retail Holdings and subsequent changes to KAL's ownership levels in this largely increased business unit. Secondly, the disposal of TFC properties as per prior announcements we did.
Finally, changes in the KAL Group shareholding as a result of the Zeder unbundling, the PSG unbundling, and the wind up of Depo Trust, our previous 20% BEE partner. Post the PEG deal, the TFC BEE ownership status is 52.7% on a black ownership basis, well above the current requirement of 25%, as required by the Liquid Fuels Charter. For those seeing the presentation for the first time, please note that KAN, or Kaap Agri Namibia, is a 50/50 venture with Pupkewitz in Namibia. It is also pertinent for all to note that the KAL Group shareholding in TFC of 58.2%, or when including ETG, 61.4%, when modeling attributable earnings to shareholders of the company. Please note that. On this slide, we depict our trading brands used by the different divisions.
On the left-hand side, we have all our group company-owned brands, and on the right-hand side, all the non-company-owned brands which are deployed. To note the convenience retail store and quick service restaurant brands on the right-hand side, mostly are franchise operations. They are all linked to retail fuel sites and are fully operated by The Fuel Company or PEG operations. Notably, since our last presentation, there is a change in the Caltex branding to Astron Energy, the orange in the middle. As well, the addition of a Pick n Pay Express into the group, as well as Bootleggers and O'Meal franchises post the PEG deal. This emphasizes the larger role retail and food convenience is playing in our company, which has been an amazing diversification journey since 2015.
The TFC Group of companies is on track to sell over 4 million pies in 2023. A few Agri or other market role players who might criticize our diversification strategy tend to forget that those very same pies contain over 80% or more produce, which is produced by farmers. The millions and liters of cool drinks we sell in those convenience stores rely on sugar produced by our farmers. Not to mention the buns, the burger patties, the cheese slices, the lettuce, the fries. Need I say more? I'm just saying. The one part of the business selling inputs to farmers to produce products and the other part of the business adding value to those very same products and selling them to consumers. A great diversification story. Yes, we do realize the page is full now, but that won't stop us.
This business segment slide is relevant to understanding how we differentiate the business in terms of income streams and the trading brands within each one of those income streams, and excludes the corporate division. The largest division on the far left-hand side is still our Agrimark division, consisting of 148 business units, which is up from 144 in March this year, contributing 68% to the profit from operations, including Agrimark brands, New Holland agency business, Forge and FarmSave brands. The second-largest division now, second from the left, is TFC, which includes PEG post the deal, and consists of 89 units, of which 85 are retail fuel stations, which are up from 48 units since March, contributing a further 18% profit from operations and now operating all major oil co-brands and sites in South Africa.
Our grain services division, Agrimark Grain, consists of 15 silo and seed complexes, which focuses on silo grain handling as well as wheat and potato seed processing and trading. It also contributes 11% to profit from operation. The last income channel is the manufacturing division, consisting of five business units and hosts Agriplas which focus on the manufacturing of irrigation products as well as Tego, which focuses on the manufacturing of large injection molded polymer products, both essential to the food sector in South Africa. Our supply chain division acts as a support service for the acquisition, distribution, and logistics of products for the group. All the above are supported by our corporate and financial service departments, with two offices and 13 financial service units spread throughout South Africa.
In total, there are currently 272 business units in South Africa and Namibia, having added 47 units in the last year, mainly due to the PEG acquisition. We have added an additional statistic on the top right-hand side. This is a comparison in the table of channel trading profit contribution and gives clear insight into the result of our diversification strategy, which we have been following for the last number of years. Note that this table excludes the trading profit contribution from PEG so that we could do a like for like comparison. It is important to note that excluding PEG, about 65% of fuel trading profit contribution is also retail-based, retail consumers, given the TFC footprint expansion over the last few years.
Therefore, our trading profit contribution from retail-based activities is now 54.5%, even although the Agri channel has gained in the past year. This has been a successful transition from a highly Agri-based trading activities business to a more balanced contribution between Agri, general retail, convenience retail and fuel. We believe this is a unique retail combination in South Africa, and the retail contribution is set to grow further with the addition of PEG. This geographical representation is a heat map of all business units. On the left-hand side, the whole KAL Group and on the right-hand side, the TFC business units now including PEG. The concentrated exposure in the Western Cape is diminishing year on year as a result of footprint expansions in the rest of the country.
The group now operates 148 retail fuel licensed sites in South Africa and Namibia, of which TFC now operates 85 in South Africa. Whilst the Agrimark footprint has been largely focused on water intensive areas of South Africa, the TFC footprint has focused on clusters in specific provinces in order to achieve economies of scale in terms of management and support services to their network. The PEG addition diversifies the TFC footprint to 50% exposure on highway high volume sites throughout South Africa. As mentioned, the footprint therefore continues to grow, with most of the business unit growth since 2017 being in the Agrimark and TFC divisions, indicated by the blue, the red bar, and the red checkered bar graphs, having grown to 237 business units out of a total of 272.
Some of the group milestones for the year have been real growth in Agri of 14.7% emanating from market share growth in line with our B2B strategy. On top of that, retail real growth of 1.5%, which is outperforming building sector and indicates a strong recovery in retail and food convenience trading. We purposely exclude PEG from this growth metric for this presentation. Our group fuel liters are outperforming sector trends, and we are gaining market share with some role players not able to stay in the Agri game. Are pleasantly impressed with the fuel volume resilience of PEG, with petrol volumes on par with pre-COVID already, also above sector trends. Our grain and New Holland mechanization profitability accelerated once again, capitalizing on favorable conditions in the wheat areas.
On the corporate activity front, we concluded two major transactions in the year, being the disposal of TFC properties as well as the acquisition of PEG. At the end of September, we launched our e-commerce online platform, with 7,500 items available for courier delivery from our DC, as well as another 30,000+ available for viewing on the e-catalog and purchasing in store in the Agrimark. Our website hits have increased to 6,000 per day since the launch, and more than 50% of digital e-commerce sales have been outside of the Western Cape. We are managing to survive load shedding, yet another major challenge to our business. Graeme will give more detail on the impact thereof later. Excluding the PEG transaction, our net interest-bearing debt reduced by 7.7% after last year's reduction of 8.9%.
We have maintained our B accreditation for the year. We are happy to report an improvement in returns achieved from our operations in Namibia. It is also gratifying to see 70% throughput growth in our DC at a lower cost to serve irrespective of high transport costs being driven by high fuel prices. Finally, our recurring earnings per share compound annual growth rate has been 14.7% over the last 10 years, coupled with an upward trend in return on invested capital. Again, confirms that our company has not only beaten COVID, not only is surviving load shedding, but is in fact accelerating on many fronts in line with our business strategy. Group revenue has grown by 48% overall now including the PEG on this presentation slide. With like-for-like growth of 24% on the back of F 2021 revenue growth of 23%.
Under such challenging circumstances, a marvelous performance. Inflation came in at 24% in our financial year, high due to fuel prices, and when excluding fuel, 9.3% inflation. Basket size has reduced due to the addition of PEG, with growth in transactions at 54%. The revenue growth has been made up of strong performance from Agrimark division again, in which Agri gave us 24.8% growth, while Retail gave us 9.8% growth. Retail, Fuel and Convenience grew by 107%, 37% of that, when excluding PEG. Despite still being impacted by high fuel prices which dampened travel. Grain ended up having another great year off the back of higher grain handling, as well as seed processing volumes. In terms of manufacturing, both Agriplas and Tego experienced curtail farm infrastructure spending by farmers.
This slide is a quarterly turnover growth trend graph. The blue graphs being our Retail sales and green graphs being our Agri sales movements, comparing year-on-year quarter movements. Firstly, in terms of Retail, the blue, one can clearly see the COVID recovery in quarter three of F 2021. Secondly, although Retail growth remained strong throughout F 2021, F 2022 has experienced subdued growth when excluding PEG, given the increased level of inflation in Retail categories. Although we believe this is stronger than other Retail players in the general sector. In terms of Agri, the green, the strong acceleration of F 2021 has continued into F 2022 due to market share gains on the one hand and increasing inflationary impacts on the other hand. In general, Agri conditions are stable, but inflationary pressures will weigh down expenditure at farm level. Graeme will now take us through the financial results.
Thanks, Sean. Reflecting on the highlights for the period, it's evident that Group has delivered an impressive trading performance. Revenue has grown by 48.4% and includes three months of PEG performance. Like-for-like comparable sales grew by 24%. We saw a 54.3% increase in the number of transactions during the period. This mainly the result of including PEG transactions for the three months. Excluding PEG, Group transactions still grew by a very healthy 7.9%. Compared to pre-COVID 2019 levels, revenue has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 22.9%. EBITDA increased by 21.8% to ZAR 673.2 million, a strong measure of financial health and cash flow generation. Recurring headline earnings grew 24%, with recurring headline earnings per share growing by 21.1%.
As a reminder, we consider REPS to be a key benchmark to measure performance and to allow for meaningful year-on-year comparison. Group fuel volumes increased by 21.1% with TFC inclusive of PEG growing volumes by 37.6%. Return on invested capital increased from 11.1% last year to 11.6% this year and above our weighted average cost of capital. A final dividend of ZAR 1.22 per share was declared, bringing the total dividend for the year to ZAR 1.68 per share. This increase of 11.3% on the prior year represents a dividend cover of 3.3x , slightly higher than the 3x in the prior year due to debt repayments, largely PEG acquisition related from TFC attributable earnings. Regarding segmental reporting, you'll see a change in the naming of the various segments.
Trade has become Agrimark, and Grain Services has become Agrimark Grain. This in line with our brand review process. All segments delivered good results year-over-year, with only manufacturing showing a decline. As a reminder, last year we reviewed the methodology applied to segmental reporting and made improvements in the trade debtors and borrowings as well as the associated interest received and interest paid have been allocated to the operating segment to which they result, relate. This provides a more accurate representation of invested capital within the various segments. Agrimark remains the sector generating the most revenue and PBT, with income growing 24.8% and PBT increasing by 19.9%. Key focus areas in this environment were margin enhancement, cost management and stock and footprint optimization. This robust performance has underpinned our strong group growth.
Retail fuel and convenience, which now also includes PEG, increased income by 107.1%, with operating profit before tax growing by 39.5%. Revenue increases were driven by the addition of PEG, non-like for like sites, fuel price increases and strong contributions from convenience store and quick service restaurant offerings. The performance of this division has been encouraging given the economic challenges faced by consumers. Net assets now include the IFRS 16 related right of use asset and liability stemming from the TFC property sale and leaseback transaction, as well as the PEG acquisition related intangible assets and debt. Agrimark Grain had another standout year, growing revenue by 32.7% and operating profit before tax by 14.5%, with improved performance due to the increased wheat harvest.
Latest harvest estimates indicate the likelihood of an average wheat harvest for the new financial year across the total Swartland region. The reduction in net asset relates to the timing of forward cover contracts on grain purchases which were abnormally high in the previous period. In the manufacturing segment, irrigation related revenue was negatively impacted by the curtailment of infrastructure spend, with segment revenue decreasing by 11.6%. Tego's expected improvement in the year was delayed. However, Tego's new extra volume pome bulk bin has come into production and expectations are positive for the coming year. Segment operating profit before tax reduced by 47%. The corporate division, which includes the cost of support services as well as other costs not allocated to specific segments, decreased from 0.8% of revenue to 0.7%, the result of leveraged centralized support services.
As a reminder, in the operating segments, gross assets include stock, trading fixed assets and debtors. Net assets reflect the impact of trade creditors and borrowings. With regard to corporate, gross assets include corporate fixed assets, and net assets reflect the impact of group borrowings related to corporate assets only. More detail around debtors is included in later slides. This is a graphic representation of the previous slide showing contributions by segment. The revenue contribution graph has changed in that the retail fuel and convenience contribution has grown from 28.6% last year to 40% this year, due largely to high fuel price inflation and the inclusion of PEG for three months.
Profit before tax from retail fuel and convenience has also grown in contribution from 15.7% last year to 18%. Net asset contributions are fairly similar year-on-year. Looking at the income statement, as mentioned, revenue grew by 48.4%. Gross profit increased by 27.1%, but at a rate lower than revenue growth, due largely to the higher contribution of lower margin fuel revenue and compounded by fuel price increases. This translated into a lower GP margin year-on-year. As mentioned previously, GP % in the retail fuel and convenience segment is heavily impacted by fuel price increases. In the GP rands on fuel sales do not increase when fuel prices increase, resulting in GP % reductions. M ore of this in a later slide.
Effective cost management remained a key focus area during the period, specifically the optimization of salary related expenditure and associated costs. The non-like for like impact of costs related to the conversion of two managed fuel sites to own sites, the addition of seven new TFC and Agrimark sites, the disposal of TFC properties and the subsequent leaseback of the properties, as well as the PEG acquisition, resulted in expenditure increasing by 32% in the current year, while like for like expenditure grew by 12.2%. Transactional banking costs on high inflation related fuel transactions remain problematic as these costs need to be absorbed by fuel retailers without any increase in margin. Furthermore, load shedding has added unnecessary operational costs in terms of backup energy supplies, as will be seen in a later slide.
Recurring headline earnings grew 24% with recurring EPS of ZAR 5.7823, growing 21.1% for the year. REPS has now grown at a compound annual growth rate of 15.5% when compared to pre-COVID 2019. Return on equity ended on 16.5%, up 1.2% on last year. Total dividend per share of ZAR 1.68 per share increased from the ZAR 1.51 in the prior year. This increase of 11.3% from the prior year represents a dividend cover of 3.3x , slightly higher than the three times in the prior year, as mentioned before. The three graphs illustrate the continued strong five-year performance of the business reflected in the year-on-year recurring EPS growth.
Looking at the balance sheet, total assets grew significantly due largely to the acquisition of PEG, the sale and leaseback of TFC Properties, increased stock and debtors balances, as well as increased cash on hand at year-end. Working capital saw a marked increase due to abnormally high inflation and real growth, the business has managed the impact thereof effectively. Trade debtors have grown at a rate marginally above the increase in credit sales, but out of terms have decreased by 0.6% of trade debtors. Inventory grew at a rate slower than revenue growth, and creditors' days were in line with last year. While strong trading performance and the effective management of capital expenditure had a positive impact on borrowings, high inflation increased working capital requirements and the PEG transaction resulted in a higher net debt position.
The group's debt to equity ratio increased by only 3.4%- 59.5% when compared to last year. An outstanding performance considering the additional PEG acquisition-related debt incurred. Excluding the PEG acquisition debt, the group's debt to equity ratio improved from 56.1% last year to 47% this year, with debt to EBITDA at 1.8x . Net asset value per share continues to increase, albeit that assets are at historic values. Return on net assets has improved from 9.8% last year to 10.3% this year. Interest cover reduced to 6x , but remains healthy. In summary, the balance sheet is strong and is further strengthened during the period. Gearing levels are appropriate and within our internal thresholds with sufficient headroom available to meet the current year's requirements.
This slide reflects the recurring headline earnings waterfall from 2021- 2022. GP growth was strong, albeit lower than revenue growth as mentioned. Expenses grew by only 12.2% on a true like-for-like comparable basis. Total expense growth, however, was driven by the non-like-for-like impact of costs related to TFC site conversions, additional TFC and Agrimark offerings, the addition of PEG's 41 sites and the sale and leaseback of TFC property sites. Interest received increased due to higher debtor balances, increased interest rates on debtors accounts, and the inclusion of PEG's strong cash generation. Interest paid increased due mainly to a combination of higher interest rates and higher average borrowings for the period, which included the funding of the PEG acquisition. In total, recurring headline earnings grew by 24%.
This slide has been included to show the financial impact that load shedding has had and continues to have on our business. The year-on-year increase in the number of load shedding hours is evident in the right-hand graph above. By the end of September 2022, we have had more load shedding in 2022 than in the three previous years combined. This has had a huge negative impact on businesses in South Africa, and Kaap Agri is no different. During the year, ZAR 11.9 million was spent on backup generator fuel and a further ZAR 2.2 million on generator maintenance, depreciation, and rentals. Had PEG been part of the group for the full twelve-month period, an additional ZAR 5.3 million would have been spent on load-shedding-related costs. Further indirect costs have also been incurred, an example being increased insurance charges.
ZAR 4.4 million was spent during the year on generator-related CapEx, with an additional ZAR twelve and a half million being spent to date on solar installations. The impact of load shedding on lost revenue is unquantifiable, but it is real. Ultimately, load shedding is driving up costs, driving up capital expenditure, and driving down earnings. We include this slide to illustrate the items impacting earnings to calculate headline earnings and recurring headline earnings. You will see that earnings per share, headline earnings per share, and recurring headline earnings per share all grew in excess of 21% year-on-year. Headline earnings adjustment relate to profit on disposal of various low return generating or non-essential assets as well as TFC properties. Non-recurring items consist mainly of costs associated with new business development as well as certain legal costs.
Furthermore, adjustments for the remeasurement of put option liabilities exercisable by non-controlling subsidiary shareholders are also added back. These put options were derecognized or relinquished during the year. As you will see, recurring EPS grew by 21.1% and has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7% over 10 years. Over the past few years, return on invested capital or ROIC and EVA have been prioritized as key performance indicators to measure our efficiency of allocating capital within the business. As you are well aware, we have invested heavily into the business since 2017, both in upgrades and expansions as well as in acquisitions. At the same time, we experienced subdued economic conditions and drought, which reduced returns, particularly in our like-for-like space. We also experienced the impact of COVID during 2020 and into 2021.
Despite this, through a committed focus on ROIC and EVA, we have been able to reverse the prior declining ROIC trend and significantly reduce debt levels. As previously indicated, we embarked on a prudent capital expenditure approach. We also reviewed the TFC portfolio and successfully disposed of TFC properties during 2022 without any negative impact on the operations of TFC. PEG was acquired in July 2022 and will have a positive impact on ROIC going forward. Trading is again expected to be strong in the coming year, and we will continue to explore high return, low capital requirement investment opportunities. The annualization of the disposal of TFC properties as well as the acquisition of PEG is expected to further enhance ROIC in the new year.
Lastly, you'll notice in the remuneration report for our AGM in February 2023, that 40% of executive reward in terms of the long-term share incentive scheme is linked to EVA as a performance hurdle, with management incentivized to outperform specific ROIC targets. I'll now hand back to Sean for the segmental reviews.
Thank you, Graeme. The next few slides will inform you of our segmental strategy, the reviews for the year, and as well as the outlook for the new year. Firstly, our Agrimark division. In terms of the past year, strategy is focused on market share growth in retail while optimizing retail formats, increasing DC utilization and throughput, and implementing centralized optimization initiatives in terms of assortment, pricing, and replenishment, as stated before. Agri inputs have grown at 23.7%, driven mainly by fertilizer at 66%, including inflation. Packaging material at 15% being the main two categories driving growth. There's some market share growth in there as well. New Holland agency sales grew again at +17%, both from spares and equipment sales, gaining market share, especially in the Swartland region. Retail grew at 6% in the Agrimark division.
Coming from prepaid growth at 35% in our money markets, gas recovering at 25% and building materials showing 4.5%, I think, ahead of the sector. Pool and Garden was also a great star for the year. Total revenue, therefore, growing at 24.4% in the Agrimark division. OpEx was at 12.7%, slightly on the high side due to banking costs, high fuel prices, driving up, vehicle costs and other operational expenditure. Interest increasing at 26.4% off the back of interest rate increases, and DC cost to serve down by 10.6%, resulting in a profit before tax contribution out of the Agrimark division of 19.9%.
In terms of the outlook, looking forward, we would like to see acceleration of our B2B market share drive with our top hundred customer drive as well as our potential 100 customer drive. We will continue store upgrades. We believe the food sector is stable after the pressure of the past year and the average wheat harvest is expected, as Graeme said. Farm infrastructure spend for the year will be under pressure due to the previous year's lower income levels at farm, on the farm side. Retail diversification. In Agrimark division, cash sales are up to 28%, contributing 42% of the GP. It is slightly down from a contribution point of view in, versus the prior year. We continue to see margin improvements of central pricing, assortment, and replenishment, with retail margin up 2.8% in the last year.
Tiga agency growth is a good outlook for us. We hope that the new product launches run very well. In terms of the Retail Fuel and Convenience division, commonly called TFC or The Fuel Company, this is a company which now holds nearly 90 retail fuel sites, in fact 89 sites and businesses at the end of the year, and is one of continued growth post-COVID. Great recovery in this division. The strategy has remained unchanged. We are onboarding PEG. We have a very selective footprint growth strategy. We are collaborating with oilcos to improve current operations, centralized support, and leveraging diversity. We've added one fuel site on the old TFC side, and obviously with the acquisition of PEG, we've added 41 retail fuel sites. COVID seems to have normalized in terms of travel patterns, high fuel prices dampening volumes even further.
We now believe that fuel price has more of an impact than what COVID had. Excluding PEG, liter volumes decreased by only 2.3%, which actually is outperforming the sector. Including PEG, profit before tax contribution has grown by 39.5% and a return on net assets, importantly, also increasing to 19%. The average site tenure for these sites in the current year is around 19 years post the PropCo sale and then the PEG acquisition. We use 30 years for evergreen sites, which are called Dodos, in where we own the properties. In terms of the outlook for the new year, the petrol mix percentage continues to increase on the back of high diesel prices and low volume contribution. This is good for our business as petrol margins are better than diesel margins, a pattern or trend to watch in the future.
Travel patterns have now changed. This seems permanent. Very selective new site investigations are on the way. We do have, however, a KFC rollout focus going forward. Our forward-looking liter growth is only at 3% for the new year, which is probably a conservative approach. OpEx cost per liter is a big focus for this division. We are attempting to mitigate bank cost impact on the business. TFC now has a 52% direct black ownership. Our forward-looking site tenure in this division is around 18 years. We have introduced this slide as a once off, considering the large investment made into the PEG business by The Fuel Company, TFC. From an acquisition point of view, we will added 41 national highway retail fuel sites, including convenience stores and quick service restaurants.
This business that we have acquired has 183 retail touchpoints. They have over 3,000 employees. They sell over 3.3 million pies and over 700,000 coffees per year. The purchase consideration was circa ZAR 1.1 billion, of which ZAR 949 million was paid in cash, ZAR 72 million in TFC shares, on a swap basis, and a ZAR 80.8 million contingent consideration, which will be payable at a later date. The PEG Retail Holdings shareholding is TFC at 100%, with non-controlling interest at 15.2% in the underlying subsidiary operations. The TFC shareholding itself is Kaap Agri at 58.2% with ETG, which is our trust, at 3.2%. If you add them together, you get to the 61% I mentioned earlier. The non-controlling interests, mainly BEE partners at 38.6%.
Keep in mind that Kaap Agri has its own BEE status and therefore, in total, the TFC black ownership currently equates to 52.7%, way above the requirement by the DMRE in terms of the Liquid Fuels Charter. From an F 2022 financial performance, PEG has performed very well and as ex-expectation in the three months since acquisition. Fuel volumes for the full year were circa 290 million liters, since acquisition, 69.9 million liters. Full year revenue was ZAR 7.5 billion, since acquisition, ZAR 2.1 billion, with the petrol mix percentage surprising at the upside of 55%, which is good, which bodes very well for the future. Another significant point to note is the contribution to gross profit of 56% from retail activities.
This does confirm what we have stated in the past, that this investment was more a retail investment than a fuel investment. Profit before tax for the year was ZAR 208 million, which was above transaction parameters and ZAR 52.5 million since the acquisition date. All in all, this investment is on target to date. We have again included this slide to illustrate that fuel price changes don't drive profitability in this channel. What does drive profitability in this channel is margin per liter, and therefore, the most important driver within this channel is volume more than price. As can be seen, petrol price is 27.5% up on a year ago, and diesel is up 55% on last year. These fuel prices driving healthy fuel price gains, but volumes drive profitability, not price.
As can be seen in the segmental reports we do, our fuel company's profit doesn't track price, it tracks volumes. If one looks at the table bottom left, the example we prepared for you, as at 30 September, petrol price was ZAR 23.38 per liter. The margin was ZAR 2.29 and the margin percentage 9.8%. If price rises by ZAR 1, margin drops to 9.4%, yet gross profit remains ZAR 2.29 per liter if you sold the same liter. Hence we say fuel price doesn't drive the profitability. The ability to sell volumes does. As I stated earlier in the presentation, both TFC and Peg are beating the sector trends on volumes, and Peg in particular is showing great resilience in specifically petrol volumes.
In terms of the Agrimark Grain division, in short, F 2022, we continued with a strategy of market share growth, facility optimization, and growth as a regional player, especially in the Swartland area. F 2021/2022 wheat harvest was the highest in 15 years, an absolute record. These high volumes, however, did lead to high inter-silo movement costs. Profit before tax contribution from this division was up at 14.5%, circa ZAR 70 million, a new record. The F 2022/2023 wheat harvest progress on the right-hand side in that table is very positive. We believe that the red indicator indicates where the harvest will probably end more of an average harvest, therefore expected. Our Canola tonnage, similar to prior year. Our wheat prices are positive for the farmers currently, and we believe will cover higher input costs that have been incurred by those farmers to produce this harvest.
In terms of the manufacturing division, which is made up of Agriplas and Tego. Agriplas producing irrigation products for the agricultural sector, in particular the fruit sector, and Tego currently producing bins for harvest and storage in the same sector. This division has only contributed about 1.3% to the profit from operations. In terms of F 2022, the strategy has remained unchanged, focusing on market share, new products, optimization, not doing any one-way plastic, and focusing on the fruit sector. High farm input prices dampen farm infrastructure spend, especially at Agriplas. Tego sold similar quantity of bins during the year and has commissioned a new mold at the end of October. Overall, manufacturing decreased profit before tax contribution by about ZAR 6.6 million.
The outlook is at Agriplas, a PC sprinkler which is being developed, which is pressure compensated, the progress to that is very positive. A 0.7/0.8 liter per hour drip line product has been launched late in F 20022 and will therefore we will see the uptick in sales in F 2023. Agriplas we expect an F 2023 recovery, if the fruit sector remains stable as it is. In terms of Tego, we continue a market penetration into the citrus area with the initial bin that we produced, and I'm glad to announce that the new extra volume bin for the POME, which is apples and pears, as well as the raisin market, has been launched. We continue to as well do a good level of total manufacturing volume through that business. We therefore expect Tego to have a good swing in F 2023. Graham will now cover cash flow, capital spend, and debtors.
Thanks, Sean. Moving to the cash flow performance, one can see that the group continues to generate strong cash flows from operations through strong cash profits and working capital management. The acquisition of PEG will further enhance the cash generation of the group. The cash component of turnover increased from 32% five years ago to almost 48% this year, and is expected to be around 59% in the coming year. Although working capital increased significantly due to real growth and abnormally high inflation, the businesses managed the impact thereof effectively. Our investment in centralized procurement and distribution, as well as stock management, continues to generate positive results, with inventory growing at a slower rate than revenue growth, and in rand terms, being funded by the increase in creditors.
Trade debtors have grown at a rate marginally above the increase in credit sales, with out-of-terms decreasing as a percentage of trade debtors, which further showcases the quality and resilience of the debtors book. Group borrowings increased by ZAR 828.4 million. Whilst existing term debt was serviced in line with requirements, an additional ZAR 725 million term loan was raised to partially fund the PEG acquisition. All other capital expansions, including the additional TFC site acquired, were funded through normal general banking facilities. Interest paid was significantly up year on year on the back of increased interest rates, higher working capital requirements, and the additional debt funding for the PEG acquisition. That said, the cash flow impact of interest received exceeded that of interest paid, resulting in an increase in net interest received for the year.
Overall, a strong cash performance for the year, albeit with a number of challenges. With regard to capital expenditure, during the year we spent ZAR 217.6 million on CapEx, largely expansion-related and excluding acquisitions, compared to ZAR 64.8 million in 2021. Of this year's amount, 71.8% went towards numerous expansions and an additional packaging materials DC in the Agrimark segment, and only 3.3% to retail, fuel and convenience, mainly QSR upgrade related. 9.3% was spent in Agrimark Grain, largely to expand grain handling capacity as well as on required check projects. In Tego, a new extra volume POME bin mold was acquired, and in our corporate space, we allocated 7.2% of capital spend to the modernization of our ERP system and our Agrimark online project.
Capital spend is subject to stringent feasibility modeling and allocated in line with our ROIC focus and thresholds. As always, a bit more insight into our debtors book, and as you will see, we have added three additional slides to share further details on our debtors model. We did this to enlighten a number of people who are wary of the perceived risk of our book, so that they can gain a more complete understanding on which to base their views. Our strategy to grow the debtors book remains key to our business model. This is done through responsible credit extension for the purposes of enabling revenue growth by increasing the consumer's ability to purchase from our various offerings. Credit granted can only be used for purchases at the various Kaap Agri and TFC outlets. We provide production credit and not consumer credit.
Our stringent and well-entrenched credit vetting process takes into account a range of variables, including financial and non-financial factors, as well as the nature and value of any securities provided. The resulting credit rating is used to determine the size of the facility that is approved, as well as the interest rate charged to that account. Our debtors book grew 25.7% during the period and has grown at a 12.4% compound annual growth rate over the past five years. The book now totals just over 16,100 accounts, with roughly 21% of these accounts being seasonal accounts with payment terms linked to the cash flow cycle of underlying products. These seasonal accounts could have payment terms from three months up to 12 months.
The contribution of debtors by product type at year-end remained fairly similar to last year and weighted towards grain and fruit. Our bad debt write-offs continue to be very low and are reflective of the quality of underlying accounts, with only 0.12% of the debtors book being written off during the current year. During the year, a decision was taken to write off a long outstanding account. This write off has been excluded from the green bars on the graph as it relates to fraud and not to debtors risk per se. Unfortunately, I can't elaborate further on this specific write off as it relates to a civil and criminal process. The five and 10-year average bad debt write-offs remain very low. Lastly, we make in the region of 225 basis points net interest received on all accounts.
Moving on to our out of terms or overdue debtors. This graph shows the monthly five-year trend of overdue debtors as a % of total debtors and highlights the following. Over the past five years, we have successfully navigated some of the worst agricultural and economic conditions that have been faced by our customers in decades, without any significant deterioration in the book and without any meaningful default. As a reminder, during the ravages of Day Zero in the Western Cape, not a single wheat debtor was written off. Monthly trends are similar year-on-year, except for short months.
The 2022 out of terms % has been of the lowest we have seen during the past five years. We ended the year in a very healthy position with out of terms lower by 0.6% of debtors when compared to last year and below the five-year average. We are well-positioned given the stable agri conditions being experienced in our areas. The next three slides are the additional graphs I referred to earlier. This graph reflects the debtors balances by month by underlying product group. Note that the only significant product group that is exposed to dry land farming is wheat. The large exposure to table grapes during December to March is driven by packaging material, which will be far lower in the event of a poor harvest.
The various product groups have different harvest timelines, and as such, the cash flow timings also vary, which reduces any single cash flow constraint event in the group. You'll also see that no product group ever gets down to zero. The reason being that even during off-season periods, farmers continue to spend on their accounts, be it for infrastructure maintenance, upgrades, pre-season activities, or the like. Product groupings with shorter seasons, such as vegetables, also have a less cyclical and a flatter cycle. Ultimately, a good spread over the various product ranges, which reduces risk. As you know, our agri focus revolves around water-intensive farming areas, and this graph shows the credit sales by month by river system. The highest sales areas are the Berg and Hex River systems, which aligns to the wheat and table grape information on the previous slide.
The wide geographic distribution of the debtors book is evident and ensures that the impact of regional weather or other challenges is lessened, in addition to also smoothing the cash flow from debtors. We have decentralized credit teams in all our regions who engage face-to-face with customers, supported by a centralized credit vetting office. The growth opportunities for Agrimark in certain of these river systems are very encouraging. In summary, a good spread over a wide geographic area, which further reduces the risk. This last slide on debtors sets out how long our debtors have been customers of the group. Almost half our debtors by credit facility value have been with Kaap Agri for more than 10 years, with 72% having been with us for five years and more.
Only 12% of debtors have been customers of Kaap Agri for less than two years. This 12% even includes accounts where there have been entity changes. By example, where a farmer previously traded in a CC and now trades in a Pty. It's clear that a very large percentage of our debtors have supported Kaap Agri for a long time. This ties into the low default rates we are able to achieve. We know our farmers well, we're familiar with the individual operations, and we have very, very close relationships with them. With regard to the risk profile of the book, 57% of the book is considered to be low and very low risk, with less than 1% being seen as very high risk.
In summary, the book is well managed, stringently vetted, diversified from a product and geographic perspective, has an exceptionally low default ratio, and is suitably secured. Furthermore, as mentioned, we are well-positioned given the positive agri conditions being experienced in our areas. I trust these five slides give a very good insight into why we do not believe our debtors book deserves some of the negative comments that are shared by a few detractors. Sean will close out from here.
Thanks, Graeme. We can therefore summarize as follows. In the past year, real growth from our Agrimarks, New Holland agencies, and record growth from our grain services. Real growth in agri of 14.7%. Retail categories, real growth of 1.5% ahead of sector, and diversified growth. An abnormal year, full of ups and downs, high inflation, increased interest rates, sometimes good price, pressure on consumers, fuel volume recovery ahead of sector, although dampened by the high price. Convenience, strong recovery to above pre-COVID levels. We have executed the TFC properties disposal transaction as well as the PEG acquisition transaction. Needless to say, this kept management relatively busy throughout the year. We have continued with optimization and digitization initiatives in the background. OpEx, working capital and CapEx are stable. Overall returns are lifting. All in all, a year we ended with over 7,000 employees doing close to 5 million transactions a month. Just by the way, that's two transactions per second.
In terms of an outlook going forward, as stated, the wheat won't repeat the prior year record harvest. We therefore expect a more average harvest for this new year. A stable agri sector is expected with the prior year's logistical challenges and high shipping costs largely behind us. We will continue to onboard PEG during the year with nine months of contribution expected, while consolidating operations being key to us and expanding convenience offerings which are showing great potential.
We are cognizant, however, that the economy is expected to remain sluggish and our efforts to increase market share are paramount. We expect inflation and interest rates to weigh heavily on general retail, while load shedding could dampen F 2023 prospects somewhat, although we believe controllable at a stage 2 to 3 level for us. Finally, we remain on track to deliver our medium-term growth targets with an uptick expected due to PEG in F23 to the upper range of our growth expectations. We thank you and will take further questions.
One of the first questions is there any further appetite for acquisitions? If so, what assets are likely to be of interest and what are our funding capacity for deals? From a growth perspective, obviously within the current situation is that we'll probably follow a balance between the agriculture and convenience retail sectors. In agriculture per se, there are several opportunities, in fact more than ever I've experienced in the past. One of the challenges does remain return on invested capital in that space. Although the opportunities are there, the assessment of those opportunities currently indicates low returns.
We will continue obviously investigating those opportunities. On the convenience footprint front, we are under no rush. We obviously want to onboard PEG properly and ensure that we are in line with their operational methodologies. So we will have a selective approach over the next 12 months in terms of convenience retail growth. We have, however, started a process to identify new growth channel, and it could be in clean renewables or cleaner power supply as such. We've got some super accelerator engineers analyzing some potential opportunities in that front. I will just again stress, we really use ROIC as the measure of something that would add value to shareholders, and is ultimately the measure that we use to decide to invest.
Do we have funding capacity? A gain, when the return on invested capital is convincing, one obviously would make a plan of funding. I don't think any bank would step away from a great opportunity. Another interesting question, and it's a really fair question, is that the QSR brands are, which we run off obviously franchisees and from the Stats SA number it seems QSR numbers are very strong and recovering above the trend. Now we can confirm that that is exactly the same that we are experiencing and we would like to think that within the PEG structure as well as our own TFC structures, I think the two main trends coming through there is that petrol volumes are back stronger than diesel volumes, which indicates that there is more a general consumer in that space that's traveling.
That you can see that pulling through in terms of quick service restaurant trading. There, it seems to be a direct correlation between the petrol per liter recovery and the quick service restaurant. That is what we refer to in the presentation as being pleasantly surprised with the petrol recovery and obviously linked to the QSR. The PEG QSR and convenience trading is up 14% above pre-COVID, which is a really good strong indication that it's totally contrary to the normal economic trends. The second part I would highlight is that we do believe that load shedding per se is having an impact on people passing by convenience stores which are open. All our stores, whether it be an Agrimark or a TFC site or a PEG site, are all open during load shedding hours.
We do believe that that convenience offering is having a positive effect in terms of people stopping, knowing that it's pointless going home, and hitting loadshedding. They are buying on the way home. We do believe that is a new pattern that is developing. Another question, I'll refer this one to Graham, is that every year we have to adjust our HEPS to arrive at our recurring HEPS. Surely the adjustments are recurring in nature, and thus we should just report HEPS. I'll just ask Graeme to answer on that one.
Thanks, Sean. I think every year we seem to have a number of happenings in our business that are once off. Really if we look at the current year, we disposed of TFC properties and there's obviously a host of costs associated with that process which haven't occurred in prior periods and definitely won't repeat again in future years. The same for the PEG acquisition. The last one we referred to is the revaluation of put options. The put options we've had on the balance sheet in prior periods have either been relinquished or have been exercised, and as such do not appear in future periods either.
Our intention with the recurring headline earnings per share number is to give all stakeholders a view over the long term. In our integrated report, we show five-year trends, and REPS in our view is the best income statement measure for any stakeholder to review to get a clear and transparent view of the underlying performance of the business. That said, our HEPS and our REPS growth in the current year was actually quite similar. HEPS was at 22.3% and recurring HEPS was at 21.1%. We'll continue to disclose REPS and a number of our incentives also based on recurring HEPS so that we exclude the up or down size for that matter of one-off transactions or impacts from OpEx through costs that may impact our numbers. Yeah, we'll continue to use REPS going forward.
Thanks, Graeme. Another question is, just to remind everyone involved today of the medium term growth targets. The medium term growth targets are on slide three of the presentation. They refer to specific ROIC and EVA targets. I think it's a ROIC plus 2, as a minimum, and that gets used in our incentive measurements as well. That's the one. On the other one is, compound annual growth rate over the medium term, five years plus or 15% per annum, including M&A. Then another question for Graeme: Has the return on equity plateaued at this level? Secondly, after the PEG acquisition, could we expect further acquisitions going forward? Although I think I've answered that, in the opening statement on the questions. Just around our ROE growth.
Thanks, Sean. We've always stated that our intention is to keep our ROE above 15%. We had one or two years, about five years back, we dipped below that due to a couple of reasons. Subsequent to that, we've been exceeding the 15%. Last year we were at 15.3%, this year at 16.5%. Expectations are very realistic expectations that F 2023 will be greater than the current year 16.5%. Just while we're on that, really if we look at the ROIC, Sean has alluded to ROIC, we alluded a number of times in our presentation.
ROIC is a bigger driver for us than return on equity, although return on equity is a measure we keep an eye on. You know, on ROIC, last year 11.1%, the current year 11.6%, with very little impact of the PEG acquisition flowing into that ROIC number. Reason being that we had 3 months worth of returns and we obviously had the full investment in that number. We expect ROIC for F23 to increase again with the annualization of the TFC props, the disposal out of the system as well as the annualization of PEG numbers coming through. The expectation is that ROIC and ROE will exceed the current year levels.
Thanks, Graeme. Another very relevant question is what would we consider a greatest single risk facing the Group in the next one to three years, and then thereafter, the 10- 20 year period. After considering the impact of mitigating measures, we believe that none of the top five risks, being the top five of the company, actually fall within a high risk category. Having said that, the top five risks, in short, are information technology and cyber, adverse political situation, financial sustainability, extended health issues like COVID. And then, for the first time in a few years, bad debts have slipped into the top five. In terms of information technology, it's become our highest risk due to the steep increase in cyberattacks worldwide and as well on our company on a consistent basis.
Although one is addressing that, it is obviously a huge concern. Second biggest risk is political conditions, and we believe we're doing sufficiently to mitigate on that. The third risk, highest risk, is financial stability. Within that, I would probably highlight two very short-term risks, maybe being load shedding on the one hand, and, you know, just service delivery from the state on the other hand. In terms of load shedding as a risk, our stage five impact of load shedding would probably only impact earnings by about 6% going forward in the new year.
In terms of a 10-20 year risk, it is probably a failed state scenario in which we actually believe that we could potentially step in as service providers in terms of water and power, and do it more efficiently and hopefully, you know, generate a new income stream from that. In terms of just bad debts, it has slipped into the top five, but is currently not in our top risk scoping. It is actually only just slipped into number five. Just to reiterate, not one of our top five risks actually hits the high risk category in our risk report. Thank you for these quite a few questions that come through. Graeme, in terms of the reoccurring HEPS, would just give the flavor on excluding PEG for the year, as it was only three months, and then also what was like for like growth excluding PEG?
Thanks, Sean. If we look at slide 17 of the presentation, we actually show the recurring headline earnings that were attributable from PEG. That includes the interest paid on the additional funding. That's about ZAR 32 million. If we look at REPS, including PEG, 578.23%, which was a 21% growth. If we do the calculation based on the numbers on slide 17, excluding PEG, that REPS number drops to 558.58%, which is still a 16.3% recurring headline earnings per share growth year-on-year, which I think is very encouraging. Just if you look at the difference between the two, it's about ZAR 0.225.
If you go back to the circular indicated that based on 2021 numbers, the impact of the PEG acquisition should be around about ZAR 0.81. Obviously, we've seen interest rate increases subsequent to that, and we also heard 1 year later in terms of results. Just on a high level, ZAR 0.81, if we take that back down to three months, you're at about ZAR 0.2025 versus the ZAR 0.22, between the REPS including and excluding PEG. Just to reiterate, that the performance of PEG has been in line with expectation and quite similar to the circular, you know.
Anyone out there who wants to look at including excluding PEG, if you use the circular numbers as a guidance, I think you're gonna get pretty close to where you want to be. Just from a like for like number, the like for like growth year-on-year was closer to 15%. Slightly down from that 16.3 down to about 15%.
Thanks, Graeme. A very good question here from Peter. How, you know, thanks for the good results for 2005. I think a few have mentioned that. The question is, the ZAR 1 billion PBT we are targeting in 2025, is that only tax that needs to be deducted to get to the headline earnings? That is a very relevant question. Please keep in mind that on that slide four, I think we have our structure, where you can see that TFC, we consolidate only 61% of that business. Going forward, it contributes 35%-38% of the PBT by 2025. You therefore have to consider only the portion attributable to the holdings company, which would be around the 60%-61%.
Please build that into your models to ensure that you predict your REPS on a more accurate basis. It's a very good question there. Graham, another question comes through in terms of are there any refinancing plans for the short to medium term which you can refer to? I would just say that obviously from a debtors book point of view, we are consistently looking at options which come available in the marketplace to potentially look at taking the debtors book off balance sheet. Graham, you don't need to refer to those. Our investors can know that we will not miss the opportunity to do it.
It just needs to obviously make business sense and from a feasible point of view, not actually take our returns backwards, just to get the money off the balance sheet, especially when risk actually gets placed back on top of the company. Graeme, you know, maybe just in terms of our current facilities and if we need to, which I don't think so, but Yeah, right.
Sure. From a refinancing perspective, there's two things I really like to highlight. I think the primary focus at the moment in the group is the repayment of the PEG debt. Hence you'll see on the dividend cover that our dividend cover is slightly higher than it's been, I mean, prior periods. We still use the same cover calculation. However, the attributable earnings out of GSC, we pay a trickle dividend and the remaining amount, which is really the bulk of that, is going back into the repayment of the PEG debt.
The intention is to pay down that PEG debt within probably three and a half to 4 years maximum, after which roughly ZAR 100 million in interest paid will be saved, which stands us in good deed speed in terms of future dividends or future acquisitions out there. If you go back a number of years, Kaap Agri really just had a general banking facility. I think if you look at our funding structures at the moment, we sit with a solid bank, general banking facility. We also have a portion of term debt which is being repaid on ongoing basis and has about another 2- 3 years left on that.
We have the term debt related to the PEG transaction, which, yeah, as I said, is about four years. I think our actual funding per se is well structured. To Sean's point, we're looking at debtors. I won't elaborate on that. I don't think there's an immediate plan to refinance. Our debtors are largely unencumbered. Sorry, our fixed assets are largely unencumbered, so there is opportunity there if we wanted to, but it's not necessarily something we want to do.
The second point I just wanted to raise, and it's not necessarily related to the refinancing, but post the Zeder and PSG unbundling from a shareholder perspective, we've gone from about 6,000 shareholders to close to 25,000 shareholders, of which roughly 15,000 shareholders hold less than 100 shares. In the next few months, we'll be embarking on an odd lot offer process to clear out the 15,000 shareholders. T o put it in perspective, they hold about 0.46% of the issued share capital of the business. 15,000 shareholders comes with a fair amount of admin, etc . Just to reassure everyone of the cash required for that odd lot process is really insignificant, and there's no need to go raise additional cash or anything in that line. Yeah, we'll see a clean out of odd lot shares in the next couple of months, to which I think will also bode well for our shareholders register and the remaining shareholders in the group.
Right then. No further questions. Thank you very much for at least four or five parties congratulating us with their considered results. Much appreciated. Without further ado, thank you very much for everyone joining. That is the end of the webcast.