Higher sales volumes have helped Prism achieve better earnings for the six months to December.
The group says 60% of its revenue is denominated in US dollars and although the rand was on average 12% stronger than over the same period the previous year, it expects to report a 20% to 30% increase in fully diluted headline earnings per share.
This puts diluted headline earnings per share for the period in the range of 1.32c to 1.43c.
"This increase is primarily attributable to higher sales volumes," it says in an update published yesterday afternoon.
Higher sales volumes failed to lift Prism`s revenue for the year to June as the stronger rand made a dent in dollar-denominated takings.
Revenue at the year-end slipped by 13.5% to R263.13 million from R304.15 million previously, while headline earnings per share fell by 37.8% from 7.4c to 4.6c.
For the six months to December 2003, a 23% reduction in revenue resulted from the strength of the rand against the dollar. At that time 55% of revenue was dollar-denominated.
Headline earnings per share for that period fell from 3.6c to 1.3c. Diluted headline earnings fell from 3.6c a share to 1.1c a share.
Last month Prism announced it was selling 16.98% of its shares to Mineworkers Investment Company in a black economic deal priced at R36 million.
The Prism share gained 3c or 8.1% to close at 40c on the JSE yesterday after touching an intraday high of 41c.
Related stories:
BEE firm buys into Prism
Prism`s revenue down
Tough six months for Prism
Share
