Not all companies are feeling the pinch of South Africa’s zero-growth economy. Listed technology services group Adapt IT said on Thursday that it has grown headline earnings per share by 36% on the back of a 38% climb in turnover in the 12 months to 30 June 2016.
Operating profit rose by an even more impressive 58%, the company announced. Revenue was R803,3m, from R578m a year ago, while profit for the year came in at R81m from R52,7m previously. It declared a gross dividend of 13,4c/share, up 23%.
The bulk of revenue growth, however, came from acquisitions. Organic growth year on year was 9%, while growth attributable to acquisitions came in at 29%. Operating profit margin expanded from 15% to 17%, with good performance from all business segments.
Durban-headquartered Adapt IT bought CQS Investment Holdings effective 31 December 2015 in a deal worth R216,8m, in line with its strategy to grow through acquisitions. CQS is a value-added distributor of a combination of its own and third-party software from CaseWare, ACL and Confirmations.com. CQS has about 4 000 clients.
On 1 January 2016, it acquired Multimatics, a company specialising in business intelligence solutions relating to telecommunications. A smaller offshore company, Meta Office in New Zealand, was acquired on the same date.
In a separate announcement, Adapt IT said that following a six-month induction period, it is appointing Nombali Mbambo to the board as chief financial officer. Tiffany Dunsdon, who had been chief financial officer, will revert to her previous role as commercial director.
Adapt IT was trading higher by 0,3% at R12,74 shortly after the JSE opened on Thursday. In the past 12 months, the share has added 21,7%. — © 2016 NewsCentral Media
- The writer holds shares in Adapt IT
