Business

134-year-old South African giant goes from zero to hero

Luke Fraser

 ·8 Jun 2026

PPC has seen a massive rise in earnings, with the group making strong progress with its “Awaken the Giant” strategy.

The company, which was founded in 1892, began transforming its business two years ago, with a reset of legacy ways of working, rebuilding its foundations, and refocusing on competitiveness and execution.

The Awaken the Giant strategy has now delivered its second straight year of improvement for the group, with materially improved profitability and cash flow generation.

In its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2026, the group’s revenue increased by 1.8% to R6,251 million.

EBITDA rose by 43% to R1,196 million, excluding the sale of a non-core property. The group’s EBITDA margin rose by eight percentage points from 12.3% to 20.3%.

The group’s profit for the year rose from R466 million in FY25 to R859 million, while its basic earnings per share rose 75% to 56 cents.

Its headline earnings per share increased by 25% to 50 cents, mainly due to the adjustments for the after-tax impairment and the elimination of profit on the sale of property, plant and equipment (PPE).

The group increased its cash dividend to R469 million (FY25: R274 million), equating to 30.2 cents per share.

“The results delivered over this period have been exceptional and clearly demonstrate the scale of value that can be unlocked in a well-run PPC,” said CEO Matias Cardarelli.

“While the operating environment remains stagnant, our results improved significantly across all metrics for a second consecutive year.”

Cardarelli added that the eight percentage-point expansion in its EBITDA margin highlights PPC’s position as a structurally stronger, more competitive group.

More to come

The CEO added that the recent performance significantly exceeded expectations and has positioned PPC for its next step change in FY28.

This will follow the completion of the new R3 billion state-of-the-art integrated plant in the Western Cape, coinciding with the third year of the Awaken the Giant turnaround process.

“These results are driven solely by unlocking internal value by being efficient and assertive, and therefore more competitive.

“Competitiveness across the footprint has been built by embedding a performance-driven culture, improving and strengthening core elements of the operations, supply chain and commercial functions.”

In FY26, South African cement was the primary driver of results expansion, while Zimbabwe registered strong performance in the second half of the year.

Although the group remains cautiously optimistic about the recovery of the South African operating environment in the near term, PPC believes it is well-positioned to continue delivering on internal value.

It also believes it’s ready to incrementally increase volumes and achieve higher earnings and returns when market conditions improve.

In Zimbabwe, the group believes the operating environment is expected to remain sound, supporting steady, sustainable growth. Its Zimbabwe business will also soon receive a new solar project.

The turnaround has seen the company’s share rebound from 2023 lows, rising by close to 40% over the last year.