Blue Label Telecoms has reported core headline earnings for the year ended 31 May 2021 of R788-million, equating to core headline earnings of 89.65 cents per share, of which R763-million related to continuing operations and R25-million to discontinued operations.
Core headline earnings for the prior year amounted to R562-million, equating to 62.71 cents per share, of which R469-million related to continuing operations and R93 million to discontinued operations.
On exclusion of non-recurring income of R47-million in the current year and extraneous costs of R163-million in the prior year, headline earnings from continued operations increased by R84-million from R632-million to R716-million. On exclusion of the items noted in the tables below, core headline earnings per share from continuing operations increased by 16% from 70.54 cents per share in the prior year to 81.50 cents per share.
On exclusion of non-recurring income and extraneous costs in both the current and prior year, earnings per share and headline earnings per share from continued operations increased by 15% to 77.31 cents per share and 17% to 78.01 cents per share respectively.
Earnings per share amounted to 94.55 cents per share, of which 91.67 related to continuing operations and 2.88 cents per share related to discontinued operations. In the prior year earnings per share amounted to 13.89 cents per share, of which 25.30 related to continuing operations and (11.41) cents per share related to discontinued operations.
The financial results of WiConnect in the current year of R25-million, as well as those of Blue Label Mobile, the Handset division of 3G Mobile and WiConnect, totalling R93-million in the prior year, are disclosed in core headline earnings from discontinued operations and are not included in the continuing operations’ revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, and net profit after taxation.
Revenue generated by the continuing operations within the Group declined by 11% to R18,8-billion. As only the gross profit earned on PINless top-ups, prepaid electricity, ticketing and gaming are recognised as revenue, on imputing the gross revenue generated thereon, the effective growth in revenue equated to 10% from R59,9-billion to R66-billion.
Gross profit increased by R259-million (12%) to R2,38-billion, congruent with an increase in margins from 10,05% to 12,66%.