Altron has warned shareholders its basic earnings per share are expected to drop by as much as 50% when it releases year-end results in May.
The news sent its share price sharply downward to lose almost 6% of its value by late afternoon, to trade at R18.05. Altron has also cautioned shareholders it has entered unspecified talks that may affect its share price.
Headline earnings per share are expected to drop by as much as 40%, the company added. Analysts view headline earnings per share as a key indicator of a company's performance as they strip out unusual and once-off items.
In the first half of the year, revenue gained 6% to R14.2 billion, but normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 10% to R784 million.
CEO Robert Venter said at the time the company was affected by the metal workers strike, but that the creation of the Altron TMT division delivered a positive contribution to Altron's results. He anticipated more significant successes as the integration process runs its course.
Altron notes its performance was "negatively affected by difficult trading conditions as well as a significant reduction in demand from certain key customers". It added it was also impacted by public sector constraints, which affected Altron Power, while Altron TMT's results would have been constrained by the launch of the video-on-demand service Node.
The listed company says it has implemented a "number of significant remediation initiatives to address these matters, which together with a further trading statement will be released in due course".
It notes this will provide shareholders with a business update as well as more detailed earnings forecasts.
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