Poor conditions hurt William Tell

Johannesburg - William Tell Holdings, the AltX listed group acting in the building sector on Tuesday moved to advise shareholders that a headline loss per share for the six months ended December 31 2009 had been incurred and is expected to be between 1.24 cents and 1.52 cents.

"Without the impact of factory relocation costs, the company would have achieved headline earnings per share of between 0.67 cents and 0.82 cents compared to headline earnings per share of 2.78 cents for the previous comparable period," it said.

William Tell said that the reduction in headline earnings per share was as a result of continued adverse trading conditions and a R2.6m non-recurring relocation cost in respect of consolidation of manufacturing operations at its new Chamdor site.

The group advised that basic earnings per share for the six months ended December 31 2009 are expected to be between 8.89 cents and 9.44 cents after factory relocation costs and between 10.95 cents and 11.63 cents before relocation costs compared to basic earnings per share of 2.78 cents for the previous comparable period.

"The increase in basic earnings is influenced by the capital gain of R12.6m on the disposal by William Tell of its Reuven property for a consideration of R46m," it concluded.

- I-Net Bridge