Altron is set to continue to seek acquisitions as the company seeks to widen its reach, according to the company’s CEO on Thursday.
“Our focus will remain on organic growth, supplemented by acquiring select small-to-medium-sized businesses in our focus areas, which will lead to enhanced capabilities and expanded geographic footprint,” said Altron’s Group CEO Mteto Nyati.
He didn’t provide further details about targeted potential buys.
Altron reported on Thursday a 4% rise in headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations to 73 cents a share and an interim dividend of 29 cents per share was declared for the six months to end-August. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge.
EBITDA (earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation) from continuing operations increased by 19% to R803 million.
Altron remains on track to achieve its five-year goal of doubling EBITDA by 2021, the company said.
The company’s interim revenue from continuing operations rose by 8% to R8.53 billion
“We accelerated the execution of our One Altron Strategy, which focuses on doing more with existing customers, while continuing to win new customers,” said Nyati.
“This has delivered organic growth for our business.”
Several key wins were secured during the first half, including the partnership agreement entered into between Toyota, Netstar and Vodacom, a world-first in terms of in-car WiFi at Original Equipment Manufacturer level.
“Bytes UK continued its stellar performance – growing revenue by 13% and EBITDA by 46%. Offshore revenue now contributes 49% of total Altron Group revenue, this is an increase of five basis points from the previous reporting period,” said Nyati.
Altron Karabina is strategically relevant to the group due to its capabilities in the fast-growth cloud and data analytics environment. Going forward, Altron Karabina aims to be one of the leading Microsoft licensing solutions partners. Altron Bytes Systems Integration (Altron BSI) has seen a successful turnaround, with EBITDA increased by 36% through its focus on Cloud Services, IoT, Data Analytics and Security.
Nyati noted that the first half was not without its challenges: apart from the sluggish SA economic growth, Altron Nexus was negatively impacted by the City of Tshwane Broadband Network judgement handed down against Thobela Telecoms as well as the suspension of key executives.
