33.

Capital management

The Company manages its shareholders’ equity, i.e. its issued capital (including share premium), reserves and treasury shares, as capital. The Group’s objective when managing capital is to safeguard its ability to continue as a going concern in order to provide returns to shareholders in the form of dividends and capital appreciation.

In order to maintain or adjust the capital structure the Group may adjust the amount of dividends paid to shareholders, return capital to shareholders, issue shares or repurchase shares from shareholders. For the year under review cash dividends amounting to R1 080 million (2009: R902 million) were declared. The Group also issued shares to the value of R3 714 million (2009: repurchased R666 million).

Refer to the statements of changes in equity for further details regarding the Group’s capital.