Johannesburg - Blue Label Telecoms [JSE:BLU], the South African telecom 12% owned by Microsoft, reported a 7% fall in full-year profit on Tuesday, as sales growth was offset by a writedown at its call centre business.
The company, a reseller of prepaid mobile vouchers, declared a maiden dividend of 12c per share and said it had concluded a reseller agreement with Symantec.
Blue Label Telecoms said in a statement headline earnings per share totalled 48.27c in the year to end-May, compared with 51.63c in the previous year.
The company, which has established distribution channels in Africa and Mexico, said revenue rose 11% to R17bn.
Blue Label Telecoms has benefited from high usage of prepaid cellphones in emerging markets. Blue Label Telecoms and Microsoft each owns a 39% stake in Oxigen India, another reseller of prepaid vouchers.
It said earnings were hit by a writedown related to the negative performance of a call centre unit, and lower interest earned.
The company said it had concluded a reseller deal with US firm Symantec for antivirus software for smartphones.
Shares in the company have dropped 18% this year, underperforming a 1% decline in the JSE All-share index.