Technology and engineering group Reunert has reported a 9% improvement in full-year headline earnings per share on the back of a 16% jump in revenue.

For the 12 months to end-September 2022, Reunert also reported a 17% improvement in operating profit, reaching R1.2-billion. It also hiked the dividend by 8%.

It attributed the performance to solid contributions from all three of its operating segments: electrical engineering, applied electronics and ICT.

“These performances delivered increased earnings metrics for the group and a strong improvement in the quality of earnings, measured by the return on capital employed,” it said.

Despite the strong numbers, Reunert said some of its businesses were impacted by the global supply-chain challenges this year, especially in semiconductors.

“The situation deteriorated in the second half of 2022 and resulted in a loss of sales and operating profit at Nanoteq, the group’s encryption business, Omnigo, the group’s manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCBs), and Nashua, due to Ricoh’s inability to meet the demand for office automation products. The group’s cash position was negatively impacted by this, as additional investment had to be made into raw material stock holdings to mitigate stock shortages,” it said.

In the group’s ICT segment, load shedding impacted the core small and medium enterprise customer base. Despite this, and the weak economy, the segment grew revenue by 4% to R2.6-billion and operating profit by 6% to R644-million.

Load shedding

The business communications cluster was, however, weak, with lower operating profit reported on the back of disruptions caused by load shedding.

Meanwhile, IT systems integrator +OneX continued to expand its service offering. “A strong performance in its unified communications business and the rapid growth of the new-age ICT offering resulted in a significant increase in both revenue and operating profit for the year.”

+OneX’s revenue now makes up 16% of the ICT segment, from 13% a year ago, a 37% increase year on year. This, Reunert said, reflects the “competitive relevance of its value offering in assisting its clients with their digital transformation”.

Read: Reunert’s +OneX snaps up Citrix specialist EUCafrica

The electrical engineering segment continued the strong growth in financial performance from the prior year, as both the power cable and circuit breaker businesses delivered good results. Segment revenue increased by 13% to R6.3-billion, while operating profit rose by 17% to R436-million.

The applied electronics segment, meanwhile, “recovered strongly as the large defence export order book enabled a much-improved level of sales and the demand for renewable energy continued to increase”. Revenue jumped 27% to R2.4-billion, while operating profit grew by 64% to R164-million. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media