Shortly after shedding its Nashua Mobile unit’s subscriber base in November, JSE-listed Reunert achieved higher earnings for the six-month period to March 31.

For the period under review, the group posted an 11% rise in headline earnings a share to 264.8c and a 20% increase in basic earnings a share to 286.5c.

Profit for the period rose 21%, from R393.3-million in the six months to March 2014, to R476.1-million in the first half of the current financial year, while operating profit increased 5% year-on-year to R502.8-million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell from R620.2-million in the first half of the prior financial year to R606.7-million in the six months under review.

Revenue from continuing operations increased 7% year-on-year to R3.9-billion.

“Notwithstanding a sluggish domestic economy, the adverse impact of load-shedding and delays in the commencement of various national infrastructure projects, [the] trading results for the past six months reflect a pleasing improvement over the prior year,” Reunert said.

This followed an improvement in the operating profits of the continuing operations, the interest earned on the proceeds of the Nashua Mobile deal and the additional profit earned on the sale of the Nashua Mobile subscriber base.

Revenue from Reunert’s CBI-electric unit increased 11% to R2-billion on the back of an increase in sales volumes and improved efficiencies, which had also led to a 20% surge in operating profit to R257.3-million.

The revenue generated from the continuing operations of Nashua, excluding Nashua Mobile, inched up 8% to R1.7-billion. A 19% increase in operating profit to R243.7-million during the six months under review was driven by increased volumes in ECN, a larger rental asset book in Quince and the return to profit of Nashua Communications and Prodoc.

Meanwhile, delays in the receipt of “certain significant project orders” had adversely affected the first-half performance of the Reutech business unit, which reported a 13% decline in revenue to R423.7-million and a 55% fall in operating profit to R35.3-million.

Reunert declared a dividend of 105c a share for the six months to March.