{"id":868804,"date":"2026-08-05T08:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T06:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=868804"},"modified":"2026-08-05T09:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:13:53","slug":"the-only-company-of-its-kind-in-south-africa-scoring-big-from-the-united-states-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/868804\/the-only-company-of-its-kind-in-south-africa-scoring-big-from-the-united-states-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The only company of its kind in South Africa scoring big from the United States’ war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African petrochemical group Sasol is expecting to see strong interim results, taking advantage of global oil supply crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is South Africa’s only inland fuel producer, and refines vehicle-grade petrol and diesel, along with aviation fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has several refineries, with its most notable operations in Sasolburg and Secunda, both of which are among the largest fuel-producing facilities in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a trading statement, the company said it is expecting its earnings per share to rise by between 65% and 84% in its upcoming interim financials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also forecast its EBITDA to rise by 12%-20% to approximately R60 billion, with headline earnings per share expected to increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol said these positive outlooks are driven by several factors, including improved production efficiency and global oil prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The increase in earnings for the year was driven by a combination of management actions and a more supportive macroeconomic environment during the last quarter of the financial year,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company reported a 4% increase in sales volume, which it attributed to improved production at its refineries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also noted an approximately 7% increase in global oil prices during the interim period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volatile global oil prices have been driven by ongoing conflict in the Middle East between the United States and Iran, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strait is a critical supply channel for the global oil trade, and its closure has placed immense pressure on global supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war erupted after the United States launched its attacks against Iran at the end of February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol has been able to benefit from this crisis, with its source of petrol often being from coal, which is mined near its refineries in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also noted that lower impairments of R16.8 billion before tax were beneficial, compared to R20.7 billion in the prior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all good news<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the boon from the US war, Sasol said it had faced challenges in the interim period that negatively affected earnings, including a stronger rand against the dollar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said the rand had been, on average, 7% stronger against the dollar compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also noted the once-off settlement with Transnet, which had cost the company R4.3 billion in the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that unrealised losses of R1.1 billion on the translation of monetary assets and liabilities had also offset its earnings for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol said there were several other significant impairments to its operations in the current year, including the cash-generating unit of its Secunda liquid fuels refinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said that recoverable amounts had improved through management actions, but the rand’s exchange rate had a negative impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Further progress of initiatives is required before additional benefits can be reflected in the recoverable amount,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The full amount of costs capitalised during the current year of R7.7 billion has been impaired, with R3 billion already accounted for in the interim financial statements.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol noted that, while it expects an increase in its earnings, year-end working capital is also expected to rise due to global oil prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol has seen impressive growth since the outbreak of the war in Iran, and currently has a market cap of R119.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its share price soared after the outbreak of the war in Iran and has remained high amid uncertainty about when the conflict will end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2 March 2026 and 16 March 2026, during the first two weeks of the Middle East conflict, Sasol’s share price rose by approximately 35%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prices increased by roughly R5 per share, largely driven by uncertainty about fuel supplies outside South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results<\/strong><\/td>Prior Year<\/strong><\/td>Expected Range (Min)<\/strong><\/td>Expected Range (Max)<\/strong><\/td>Expected Growth Range<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Earnings per share (EPS)<\/strong><\/td>R10.60<\/td>R17.50<\/td>R19.50<\/td>+65% to +84%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share (HEPS)<\/strong><\/td>R35.13<\/td>R36.00<\/td>R40.00<\/td>+2% to +14%<\/td><\/tr>
Adjusted EBITDA<\/strong><\/td>R51.8 billion<\/td>R58.0 billion<\/td>R62.0 billion<\/td>+12% to +20%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

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

Sasol is forecasting strong financial results on the back of global oil supply crises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":780772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2084893052254957929","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2167210010766065","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[1122,2240,25075,2138],"class_list":["post-868804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-iran","tag-sasol","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-transnet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868804","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868804"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868840,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868804\/revisions\/868840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}