South African mobile phone group, Vodacom, is reporting a 13.5% fall in half-year profit, weighed down by the issuance of new shares to meet the black ownership target under domestic affirmative action rules.
Headline earnings per share, the main profit measure in South Africa, came in at 385 cents in the six months through the end of September, compared with 445 cents a year earlier.
Vodacom, a unit of Britain’s Vodafone, issued more than 114 million shares to black investors in July in a 16.4 billion rand deal to meet the ownership target under South African black economic empowerment rules. The company, which competes with MTN Group, added 373,000 new users during the period, taking its subscriber base to 109 million, it said.
Vodacom raised dividend payout by 1.3 percent to 395 per share.
