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Spur Corporation is to raise a provision of R129.5m in its financial results following a ruling in favour of GPS Food Group in a long-running legal dispute. The dispute dates back to 2019 with food manufacturer and supplier GPS Food, and involves its South African operation.GPS alleged that an oral agreement was concluded between GPS, Spur Group and Spur Corp to establish a joint venture to acquire, develop and manage a rib-processing facility. GPS initially sought damages of between R119.9m and R167m under its main claim, as well as an alternative claim of about R95.8m for losses it said it had accumulated.The matter was referred to arbitration in 2023. In August 2025, the arbitrator ruled in favour of GPS on the main claim against Spur Group, while the alternative claim was dismissed.Spur, which is valued at R3.7bn on the JSE, said on Friday a ruling had awarded GPS Food R74.6m in damages in connection with the claim.The award, with interest at the prescribed rate of 10% from the date of the original summons in 2019 and estimated legal costs, will result in Spur making a total provision of R129.5m in its financial results for the year ended June 30.Spur plans to appeal against the ruling in its entirety. It has 30 days to lodge the appeal, which is expected to be heard by a panel of three senior independent arbitrators in February 2027. The outcome will be final and binding, with no further right of appeal.Read: JSE fines Accelerate for skipping shareholder vote on mall managerIts senior counsel believes Spur is likely to succeed with the appeal.The group said it expects headline earnings per share for the year ended June 2026 to fall between 34% and 43% to between 193.73c and 224.32c. However, excluding the GPS provision, adjusted HEPS is expected to increase between 5% and 13% to a range of 356.87c to 384.06c.Spur said its solid trading performance over the past five years has enabled it to retain sufficient cash reserves to provide for the claim.Its liquidity position and dividend declarations remains unaffected by the award, it said.Spur is due to release its annual results on August 20.
