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Blue Label beats the odds

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Caper Town - Blue Label Telecoms [JSE:BLU] released their half year results to 30 November 2014 on Wednesday which management says it’s “very happy” with.

“We had a tough year but we achieved the goals we set ourselves,” joint CEO Brett Levy told Fin24 in an interview. “Turnover is stable, earnings per share is up, our gross profit is up.”

To put figures to that: Gross profit increased by 10% to R710m, gross profit margins increased 6.8% to 7.8%; Ebitda increased by 16% to R431m; Headline earnings increased by 7% to R246m taking headline earnings per share to 37.15c. 

Said joint CEO Mark Levy: "Once again the implementation of our new products has been successful, mainly in the line of ticketing."

The group generated R742m in cash from operations, raising cash on hand by R359m to over R1.3bn.

Watch the interview:



“Ticketpros, which we bought last year, is going to be the engine through which to launch several new kinds of ticketing – in transport, events and games.

"One of our really exciting projects is the implementation of the Blue Bulls loyalty programme through the NFC (near field communication) ticketing solution. We are also looking forward to implementing NFC offerings at cricket stadiums across the country,” said Mark Levy.

“Our relationships with the likes of Visa and Banamex in Mexico, Absa and Master card in South Africa, should also bring new opportunities for people to use their cards in places and markets where they live,” added Brett Levy.”

"A lot of opportunity comes from re-inventing ourselves, taking new products and services to the masses. The Telco industry seems a bit under pressure right now and we look forward to seeing how that plays out. We think it leaves a lot of opportunity for us to increase distribution into the market place.”

The South African distribution segment remains the predominant contributor to Group earnings. On the international front, Ukash continued to increase profitability, whilst Oxigen Services India and Blue Label Mexico incurred losses.

The latter mainly due to continued margin compression and an increase in overhead costs, necessitated by the aggressive roll out of point of sale devices and support services.

The increase in expenditure at Oxigen Services India was congruent with the aim of becoming India’s first non-banked mobile wallet.

In its press release the group said money transfer services are currently transacting at $1.2m per day, increasing exponentially through Oxigen’s connectivity with the National Payment Corporation of India. “There are a lot of things happening in our markets that we’re very excited about,” said Mark Levy.

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