Billionaire Christo Wiese’s Invicta flags 29% profit drop

Invicta Holdings Ltd., the industrial parts and equipment distributor chaired by South African billionaire Christo Wiese, has warned that its earnings fell sharply in the first half of its financial year, sending its shares lower in Johannesburg.

The company expects headline earnings per share, the main profit measure in South Africa, to come in between 189 cents and 199 cents for the six months to Sept. 30. That would be a drop of 25% to 29% from 265 cents a year earlier, Invicta said in a trading statement on Nov. 2. Basic earnings per share are expected to fall 15% to 21% to between 213 cents and 227 cents, from 268 cents.

Invicta’s shares fell almost 4.5% in early trading on Monday after the announcement.

The company blamed what it called a challenging economic environment across its markets. It said its earnings and operating performance had weakened, that management had already begun taking steps to fix the underlying problems, and that the full benefit of those measures would show in the next financial year. Invicta did not give further detail on which divisions had underperformed. It plans to publish its interim results on or about Nov. 23.

The warning marks a reversal from a year ago. In the first half of the 2026 financial year, Invicta lifted revenue 6% to R4.24 billion ($255 million) and raised headline earnings per share 15% to 265 cents. Operating profit before financing items fell 12% to R325.4 million in that period.

In the full year to March 2026, headline earnings per share rose just 1%, held back by costs linked to its purchase of Spaldings, a British supplier of agricultural and earthmoving equipment parts, for £10.5 million ($14 million). Invicta bought back and cancelled R177 million of its own shares during that year and raised its dividend to 125 cents a share, from 115 cents.

Invicta sells replacement parts for industrial, mining, automotive, agricultural and earthmoving equipment, along with new earthmoving and materials-handling machinery. It operates in South Africa and across the rest of Africa, and has expanded in Britain, Poland and Ukraine. It also owns a stake in Singapore-based Kian Ann Group, a distributor of heavy machinery and diesel engine parts, which it accounts for as a joint venture.

Wiese, Invicta’s non-executive chairman, is its largest shareholder, with 42.7 million shares, or about 49% of the company. He built much of his fortune at the retailers Pep and Shoprite before taking stakes in financial services, property and industrial companies. His wealth took a heavy hit in 2017, when an accounting fraud at Steinhoff International Holdings, where he was the largest shareholder, cost him billions of dollars in paper wealth.

Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar and £1 to $1.33.