JSE-listed ceramic tile and sanitary- ware retailer and manufacturer Italtile has bucked the general poor showing in the South African retail market, delivering a commendable set of full- year results on Thursday with group turnover up 15.2% and trading profit up 18.4% for the year ended June 30.

SA’s lacklustre economic growth, low consumer confidence levels and the woes in the construction industry do not seem to have dented Italtile’s performance as much as other retail and industrial players. The group saw improvements in all key performance metrics. Italtile CEO Jan Potgieter says the group’s turnover hit the R10 billion mark, with trading profit also showing double-digit growth coming in at R1.79 billion, up from R1.5 billion in the 2018 financial year.“This is a credible performance in a very difficult environment, especially if you look at how tough

other retailers are finding things.” The group, which operates 189 stores across SA and in several other African countries through retail chains such as CTM and TopT, declared an ordinary dividend per share of 41 cents for the full year. Its dividend was up 8%, and it also paid a special dividend of 50 cents per share from its strong cash reserves. The special dividend was in celebration of its 50 anniversary and effectively more than doubled

its dividend payout to shareholders for the year. Total retail store turnover grew 6.1%, while like-for-like retail store turnover increased by 4.2%. However, manufacturing sales for the period rose by a modest 1.4%.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan has said the Ministry of is gearing up for the hosting of the next edition of Nigeria Petroleum Summit NIPS which will hold between 9th to 13th February 2020 on behalf of the Federal Government. The event which will hold in Abuja, Nigeria, is a convergence of experts from different sectors such as the automobile, banking and finance, power (electricity), pipelines, LNG, infrastructure, engineering and construction, amongst others, from within, and outside the Nigeria. The theme for the conference is “Widening the Integration Circle: Technology, Knowledge, Sustainability and Partnership”

report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Premium Motor Spirit (popularly known as Petrol) sold at the lowest price in North-East Nigeria in July 2019.

Meanwhile, the NBS report shows that states with the lowest average price of Petrol in July 2019 include Abuja (N143.00), Kogi (N143.00) and Katsina (N142.50).

Further breakdown: Across all states, the NBS report shows that the price of petrol declined by 0.2% on a month-on-month basis. Specifically, the average pump price paid by consumers for petrol decreased to N145 in June 2019, up from N145.5 in the previous month.

At the state level, petrol was sold at different pump prices in July. Out of all the 36 states in the country, the consumers in Kwara, Ondo, and Ebonyi paid the highest pump prices for petrol at an average of N146.67, N146.47, and N146.43 respectively.

Across the six geopolitical zones, consumers in the South-East region of Nigeria paid the highest average price of N145.82 in July.

Meanwhile, the South-South zone ranks second with the highest average petrol price of N145.31.

The remaining zones are ranked in this order – South West (₦145.16) North Central (₦144.85), North West (₦144.69) and North East (₦145.11).

“Tariff may go up as a result of the fact that there is going to be repayment of those capital and also payment of interest.