AGL 38.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.78 (-1.97%)
AIRLINK 131.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.15%)
BOP 6.76 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.73%)
CNERGY 4.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.49%)
DCL 8.45 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.12%)
DFML 41.18 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-0.7%)
DGKC 81.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.59 (-0.72%)
FCCL 32.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.30 (-0.91%)
FFBL 72.08 Decreased By ▼ -0.79 (-1.08%)
FFL 12.46 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (1.63%)
HUBC 110.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.04%)
HUMNL 14.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-3.1%)
KEL 5.13 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.16%)
KOSM 7.67 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.79%)
MLCF 38.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-1.08%)
NBP 63.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.98 (-1.53%)
OGDC 190.00 Decreased By ▼ -2.82 (-1.46%)
PAEL 25.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-0.93%)
PIBTL 7.45 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (1.5%)
PPL 150.25 Decreased By ▼ -3.82 (-2.48%)
PRL 25.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-1.47%)
PTC 17.49 Decreased By ▼ -0.32 (-1.8%)
SEARL 81.25 Decreased By ▼ -1.05 (-1.28%)
TELE 7.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.64%)
TOMCL 33.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-0.93%)
TPLP 8.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.3%)
TREET 16.85 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (1.38%)
TRG 57.90 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.87%)
UNITY 28.10 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (2.14%)
WTL 1.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.73%)
BR100 10,452 Decreased By -52.3 (-0.5%)
BR30 30,907 Decreased By -319.6 (-1.02%)
KSE100 97,599 Decreased By -481.1 (-0.49%)
KSE30 30,367 Decreased By -191.5 (-0.63%)

South African leasing and capital equipment firm Eqstra Holdings plans to cut 7 percent of its workforce as it freezes expansion plans owing to weak demand for its products and services, it chief said. "We will be reducing our headcount by about 7 percent. A lot of it has already been done," Walter Hill, Eqstra CEO, told Reuters in a recent telephone interview.
-- Does not foresee project cancellation
-- Sales volumes down 40pc in January-February, leasing stable
Hill said Eqstra, which employs 4,500 people, would not pursue expansion in the next 2-3 years because "any opportunity in this environment could turn out to be a liability". "The party has stopped, the music has stopped," said Hill, referring to rising commodity prices and stronger economic growth that fuelled earnings in the past year, but have tailed off due to the global financial crisis.
"Our strategy is to batten down the hatches." Eqstra, which was spun off from industrial firm Imperial Holdings last year, carries out open cast hard rock contract mining and plant hire in Africa, and sells and leases capital equipment such as forklift trucks in Africa and Britain.
Hill said business at Eqstras South African leasing business had been good so far in the second half of its financial year, declining to give a forecast.
But the firms sales volumes of industrial equipment such as forklift trucks slumped 40 percent in January and February compared to the same period last year and Hill did not expect improvement until the economy recovered and credit markets improved.
Eqstra does not foresee any project cancellations in its open cast mining business in the next six months. Hill said there were opportunities in the iron ore and coal mining sector, but it would take "a while" before these opportunities become revenue producing projects. Eqstras material handling unit in recession-hit Britain was profitable because the unit had leasing contracts on fixed interest rates, said Hill. Interest rates in Britain have dropped to 0.5 percent.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.