Paracon earnings unchanged at 8 cents

11.05.10

IT company Paracon Holdings on Monday reported headline earnings per share of 8 cents for the six months ended March 2010, unchanged from a year ago.

Revenue was 4 percent higher at R484.6 million, while EBITDA was down 6 percent to R37.8 million.

Group policy is to declare an annual dividend or cash distribution to shareholders at the publication of the September year-end financial results.

Therefore no dividend was declared for the interim period. The board said in the face of tough trading conditions during the period, the group maintained a reasonable performance.

"A pleasing feature of these results is the improvement in trading conditions in the ICT resource market during the period. Paracon's business has effectively continued to demonstrate its resilience in an economic down cycle - it remains robust, scaleable, and highly cash-generative, supported by strong annuity revenue," the company said.

The key division, Paracon Resourcing's, revenue of R413.1 million, which comprises both contracting and permanent placement income, contributed 85 percent of the group's turnover for the period and was up from R403.8 million in the comparative 6 months to March.

Notwithstanding that challenging economic conditions continued to impact on both demand for recruitment and the length of the sales cycle, activity in the ICT resource market increased during the period and it is anticipated this will continue in the second half of Paracon's financial year, it said.

The Business Solutions division performed ahead of expectations, with healthy results from

professional services and networking.

The division's revenue grew by 18 percent to R71.5 million and EBITDA by 10 percent to R8.4 million......

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