Bytes Technology Group has continued its strong turnaround, and says it is likely to pay shareholders a dividend after the year-end.
Results for the six months to 31 August show substantial growth at the company, which reported a 65% increase in headline earnings per share (HEPS) from the same period last year.
<B>Salient figures</B>
Bytes Technology Group results for the six months to 31 August 2002
Year-earlier figures in parentheses:
Revenue: R1.77b (R1.14b)
Operating profit: R79.03m (R45.13m)
Profit before tax: R49.46m (R16.61m)
Attributable to outside shareholders: -R20.38m (-R9.18m)
Attributable profit: R2.67m (-R6.41m)
HEPS: 23.55c (14.26c)
Cash generated by operations: R100.68m (R63.78m)
Current assets: R1.19b (R692.19m)
Bank and cash: R319.63m (R94.45m)
Current liabilities: R932.75m (R541m)
NAV per share: 319.12c (298.62c)
Margins also improved, with operating profit 75% up on a 55% increase in turnover to R1.77 billion.
Executive chairman David Redshaw says the healthy performance is a result of a greater focus, higher productivity levels, increased customer acceptance and improved morale.
He says the group believes these factors will yield further improvements in the second half, although the growth rate is not expected to be as high.
"The rate of growth in earnings recorded during the first six months over the comparable period last year was particularly high due to the effect of loss-making operations in the prior year."
He says while the rate of growth will not be sustained in the second half, the group is still confident in its growth prospects, and expects to report an increase in full-year HEPS.
The recent acquisition of UK-based Plato Computer Services, for which Bytes is paying between lb22.5 million and lb28 million, is not expected to improve earnings per share significantly in the immediate future. However, Redshaw says substantial benefits should be realised in the medium- to long-term.
The group`s largest operation, the core document management services business, improved operating profit by 81%. Revenue rose by 18% to R461.84 million.
Most of Bytes`s divisions performed well, although the enterprise-wide information products and services business saw its operating profit fall 55% to R5.75 million as a result of a reduced level of spend in its markets.
The software products and solutions business incurred a R1.86 million operating loss, an improvement from the previous loss of R4.17 million. Redshaw says substantial business secured recently will ensure a solid profit performance for the full year.
While no interim dividend has been declared, he says a dividend in line with increased earnings per share is likely for the full year.
The Bytes share, which rose 11.1% or 40c to close at 400c on the JSE yesterday, was trading unchanged at 10am today.
Share
