South Africa’s second-biggest media firm, Johnnic Communications (Johncom), increased first-half headline earnings per share by 460% to 1 681 cents, the company said on Thursday.
Johncom, which plans to spin off its media unit and separately list the business, said excluding its investment in Caxton and CTP Publishers, headline EPS increased 35% to 288 cents.
Headline EPS is the key profit measure for South African firms and excludes non-trading, capital and certain extraordinary items.
The company said revenue for the six months to end-September rose by 16% to R2,974-billion while profit from operations before exceptional items rose 25% to R409-million.
JohnCom owns South Africa’s biggest selling weekly, the Sunday Times, half of financial daily Business Day, cinemas and bookstores.
The group said it will make a R1,1-billion profit on the sale of its stake in pay television channels M-Net and SuperSport to media giant Naspers after competition authorities approved the deal earlier this month.
It said the media business will be unbundled and listed soon after the group had unbundled the Naspers shares it will receive as part payment for the transaction.
Naspers said a year ago that it would pay R250-million in cash and 20,89-million of its own ”N” shares in exchange for JohnCom’s 38,56% stake in the pay-TV channels. – Reuters