Woolworths Holdings Limited interim results were announced on 18 February 2009. The condensed group results can be found at www.woolworthsholdings.co.za. These are additional notes on the results. The results for the 26 weeks to 27 December 2009 are not comparable to the same period the previous year due to: •the sale of a controlling interest of the Woolworths Financial Services business in 1 October 2008, •the foreign exchange contracts that have matured during the period; •start up costs of the Trenery brand. It is important, therefore, to review the results at an operating segment level – i.e. the sum of the following parts: 1. South African retail South African retail (with two operating segments of clothing and general merchandise and food) performed strongly. Turnover at 9.1% increased on last year and has traded above the market. Market share gains have been made for the last nine months in clothing and general merchandise and for the last two months in food. Our segmented, more innovative merchandise offer and work on improved values has tempted more customers into Woolworths stores. Operating profit is up 20.1% on last year to deliver an operating margin of 7.5%. This improvement is mainly due to a focused and targeted sourcing programme to deliver improved product margins. At a segmented level, operating margins have improved in clothing and general merchandise to 13.1% and foods to 3.8%. 2. Country Road Country Road traded well in a tough Australian market that saw three interest rate increases and no repeat to the government’s fiscal stimulus. The new brand, Trenery, launched with good customer feedback. Start up costs for this brand has impacted the operating profit, resulting in a decline in operating profit margin to 6.7% from 8.4%. 3. Woolworths Financial Services Woolworths Financial Services (WFS) is non-comparable to the previous year. The results of WFS are accounted for as a joint venture in the 2009 financial year compared to the previous period when it was a joint venture for only three months. The closing debtors books have increased by 1.2% year on year at the end of December 2009. Bad debts have been well controlled with the impairment rate for the period at 6.2% down from December 2008 of 7.6% and June 2009 of 7.5%. The joint venture with ABSA is meeting our expectations. Foreign exchange contracts An unrealised loss of R79m (R56.9m after tax) on the foreign exchange contracts was incurred in June 2009. A subsequent gain of R57.7m (R41.6m after tax) is included in gross profit in the current period. It is expected that the balance will accrue in the second half of the year. Outlook Whilst conditions in South Africa and Australia will remain challenging, the upper income consumer is more confident. As we move out of a recession, the group is better positioned to take advantage of any uplift in consumer spending. Ends