{"id":846397,"date":"2025-12-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=846397"},"modified":"2025-12-20T10:06:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:06:33","slug":"international-investors-are-betting-big-on-one-of-south-africas-major-retailers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/846397\/international-investors-are-betting-big-on-one-of-south-africas-major-retailers\/","title":{"rendered":"International investors are betting big on one of South Africa’s major retailers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clicks continues to see a strong performance, with the stock set to benefit from increased international inflows into domestic equities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clicks recently opened its 1,000th store in Bassonia, with the group also having over 780 pharmacies across  South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, and Lesotho. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 50% of South Africans live within a five-kilometre radius of a Clicks Pharmacy, and the group aims to reach 1,200 stores over the medium term.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s strong performance was recently evident in its financial results for the year ended August 31, 2025, which the group stated demonstrated the resilience of its core products in a challenging environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group increased diluted headline earnings per share by 14.1% to 1,362 cents, while its return on equity (ROE) reached 49.2%. Group turnover rose by 5.3% to R47.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reported a 10.7% increase in private label and exclusive brands, which accounted for R9.7 billion of the chain\u2019s turnover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loyalty members received over R850 million in cashback, with total rewards paid to customers reaching R7.5 billion over the last 30 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group declared a total dividend for the year of 886 cents per share for the period, which was a 14.2% increase, and a payout ratio of 65%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the dividends, the group also distributed over R750 million to shareholders through share buybacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clicks latest results<\/strong><\/td>Year to 31 August 2025 (R\u2019000)<\/strong><\/td>Year to 31 August 2024 (R\u2019000)<\/strong><\/td>% change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Turnover<\/td>47 828 079<\/td>45 437 640<\/td>5.3%<\/td><\/tr>
Gross profit<\/td>11 399 653<\/td>10 632 419<\/td>7.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Total income<\/td>14 860 861<\/td>13 714 721<\/td>8.4%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings<\/td>3 234 282<\/td>2 844 598<\/td>13.7%<\/td><\/tr>
Net financing cost<\/td>(242 970)<\/td>(265 172)<\/td>(8.4%)<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share (cents)<\/td>1 361.7<\/td>1 193.5<\/td>14.1%<\/td><\/tr>
Total Dividend per share (Cents)<\/td>886<\/td>776<\/td>14.2%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

International buyers are flooding in<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Speaking with Business Day TV, Nick Kunze<\/a> from Sanlam Private Wealth recently chose Clicks as his stock pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kunze admitted that Clicks is not one of South Africa\u2019s cheapest retailers in the stock world. Its price-to-earnings ratio often exceeds 20, indicating a relatively high stock valuation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said that Clicks\u2019 private label business continues to grow from strength to strength, with a large margin expanion in that area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the company already has a strong international shareholder base, which will become more critical as South Africa has officially exited the grey list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With inflows expected to increase now, Kunze said that these inflows will likely go to financial providers and strong companies like Clicks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanlam has a target price of around R420 to R430 for the share, which is well above its current share price of around R330. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Duys<\/a> from Umthombo Wealth shared a similar sentiment, with the investment company also positive on SA Inc., given the attractive valuations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duys noted that foreign investors have been hesitant to buy South African equities and have instead focused on the local bond markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf foreign investors do come back, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to start buying businesses like Clicks, Capitec and so on,\u201d said Duys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you can buy Clicks at a relatively attractive valuation with decent growth, we think it’s a good entry point.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prominent financial journalist Simon Brown also noted that foreign buyers were bullish on Clicks when they were net buyers of South African equities. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Clicks Share Price over the last five years<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investors are betting big on Clicks, with international investors expected to invest heavily in the retailer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":846399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4268,11649],"class_list":["post-846397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-clicks","tag-dis-chem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846397"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846707,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846397\/revisions\/846707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}