Revenue Up 30 % | Altron Surges Ahead Of Plan

Johannesburg, 9 May 2019 – JSE-listed Altron has announced today that it is tracking almost a year ahead of its goal of doubling EBITDA by year-end 2022. The technology company saw gross revenue increase by 30 percent to R19.2 billion and normalised EBITDA by 24 percent to R1.6 billion from its continuing operations.

Mteto Nyati, Altron Group Chief Executive said, “We are two years into the One Altron strategy five-year roadmap and have already surpassed our set key milestones, putting us ahead of plan by almost a year. Our South African operations have seen EBITDA growth of 15 percent despite the tough economic climate. We bolstered our Rest of Africa operations and this investment delivered EBITDA growth of 41 percent. European operations have done well with over 80 percent EBITDA growth.”

Commenting on Altron’s growth strategy, Nyati said, “Overall we want to continue to grow organically but will keep looking for bolt-on acquisitions in the areas of data analytics, cloud and IoT- these remain growth drivers for the company”.

Of Altron’s operations, Nyati said the Group’s star performers were Bytes UK with EBITDA growth of 79 percent, Netstar 19 percent growth and Altron Bytes Secure Transaction Solutions 14 percent growth.

Talking about the year’s highlights, Nyati said, “We also secured key wins in both the private and public sectors. These included, among others, Altron Nexus winning the Gauteng Broadband Network Phase 2 contract worth R2.8 billion, Altron Bytes Systems Integration awarded a R38 million data analytics contract by FNB and Bytes UK won a five-year R2.7 billion contract with the NHS.”

During the year, Altron reduced debt, despite investing in future growth. Net debt is R1.6 billion, down from R1.94 billion year-on-year. The company declared a final dividend of 44 cents per share, with total dividend for the year of 72 cents per share.

“We have successfully completed the turnaround of Altron through our continued focus on four priorities driving the One Altron strategy – employee excellence, improving profitability, transforming customer experience and revenue growth,” Nyati said in closing.

Altron has also strengthened its board through the appointment of Cedric Miller as Chief Financial Officer and Dr Phumla Mnganga as an independent non-executive director.

ENDS