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Altron expects higher earnings

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 03 Apr 2014

Altron's newly formed TMT division, consisting of the Altech and Bytes businesses, has performed above expectations and the company expects earnings for the year to be up.

This is according to Altron's latest trading statement relating to its annual results for the year ended 28 February - the company's first set of annual results since the acquisition of Altech's minority shares in August 2013, and the establishment of the Altron TMT and Altron Power divisions.

Addressing its shareholders today the company said that, although the reorganisation process is ongoing, the progress made to date has exceeded management's expectations. "In particular, TMT has secured several material tenders during the past six month period."

Business performance

Altron says, in terms of the performances of the underlying businesses, Bytes has continued to perform well, despite its high base. "While gross margins have remained under pressure, revenue has shown robust growth both in the local and international operations."

Altech has recovered strongly following the disposal at the end of the last financial year of its loss-making African operations, says the company. "While revenue growth has been relatively muted, profitability has recovered strongly on pleasing performances out of its main operations and despite a number of significant once off costs."

Altron Power, consisting of the Powertech businesses, has also made a strong recovery from last year, says the company. "Despite what remain challenging and uncertain economic conditions, Powertech has delivered pleasing revenue growth and significantly improved profitability, though margins remain below historical levels.

Altron says a "reasonable degree of certainty" exists that the company's headline earnings per share for the financial year ended 28 February will be between 35% to 45% higher than the previous corresponding period, while basic earnings per share is expected to be between 280% and 300% higher.

Altron expects normalised headline earnings per share to be between 45% to 55% higher than the previous financial year.

The company is expected to release the full-year results on 14 May.

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