A recovery at Altron's now wholly-owned subsidiary, Altech, has aided Altron in posting a profit for the first half of the year.
Altron, which spent R1.8 billion to buy out Altech's minorities, posted a total net gain of R341 million, reversing the year-ago loss of R379 million. The number is for both discontinued and continuing operations. Last year's figures were affected by Altech's African operations, which led to it reporting losses.
On a continuing operation basis, Altron posted R341 million in profit, slightly lower than a year ago.
Altech has moved out of both East and West Africa, and showed a good recovery in the six months to August. In a statement, Altron says Altech Autopage performed well, especially considering the competitive market.
Altech Netstar increased revenue, although earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped as stolen vehicle recovery rates came under pressure. Altech UEC produced "excellent results" off the back of good sales into Africa as the continent moves to digital terrestrial television.
Shifting to digital television will require consumers to purchase decoders to view the new signal on older sets so that they do not have to replace televisions. Altech UEC makes set-top boxes, which convert the signal.
Altron says, overall, revenue gained 6% to R13 billion and normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 5% to R871 million. Normalised headline earnings per share increased 15% to 91c.
"Much has been achieved in the last six months. We completed the long anticipated buyout of the minority shareholders' shares in Altech bringing Altron's shareholding in Altech to 100%.
"We believe the combination of Altron's telecommunications, multimedia and IT businesses under the Altron TMT division will help unlock new revenue streams, result in efficiencies, and pool talent from the Altech and Bytes entities, which will result in innovations and growth opportunities.
"Although the interim results only reflect one month under the new structure, a lot of progress has been made with the integration of the Altech and Bytes businesses," says Altron CEO Robert Venter.
Bytes continued to perform strongly across most divisions, says Altron. Bytes Universal Systems and the UK businesses contributed significantly, it says.
"Over the last number of reporting periods, Bytes has been focusing on increasing its penetration into the public sector. Its strategy has paid off with public authorities now in third position in terms of customer segment size behind banks and retailers," says Venter.
Bytes has also made progress in moving into Africa on the back of its strategy to follow its customers, says Altron. "Going forward, most of the IT assets in Altech will be operationally managed by Bytes, streamlining the group's IT products and service offerings," Altron notes.
Powertech experienced revenue growth but earnings were negatively impacted by reduced margins, mostly due to underperformance from the Aberdare Cables, although it did show a marked improvement over the second half of last year, it says.
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