{"id":6489,"date":"2012-02-22T10:01:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T10:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=6489"},"modified":"2012-02-22T21:37:03","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T21:37:03","slug":"blue-label-new-connections-targets-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/6489\/blue-label-new-connections-targets-on-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Label new connections target on track"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Company Information\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/233831-Blue-Label-Telecoms\" target=\"_blank\">Blue Label Telecoms<\/a> (BLU) says that its target of achieving 450,000 new connections per month for its prepaid airtime and starter-packs business are on track.<\/p>\n<p>Looking forward, the group plans to send out 60 trucks &#8211; employing 12 people each, along with 100 foot soldiers &#8211; into the more rural areas to grow the business.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Person Information\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/233833-Brett-Levy\" target=\"_blank\">Brett Levy<\/a>, joint CEO of the group, said that 31 trucks were already operational, with a further 10 trucks ordered and paid for and set for operation in April. An additional 19 trucks would serve the rural communities by May 21.<\/p>\n<p>The group on Wednesday (February 22, 2011) announced a 44% rise in headline earnings per share to 36.74 cents for the half year ended November 2011, from\u00a025.45 cents before.<\/p>\n<p>Revenue improved to R9.25 billion, from R8.64 billion, with operating profit up to R392.3 million, from R251.81 million.<\/p>\n<p>The group announced a dividend per share of 14 cents, from 12 cents in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Label Telecoms said that profitability was enhanced by a once-off, other income receipt of R79.4 million.<\/p>\n<p>EBITDA increased by 47% and net profit for the period increased by 41% to R272 million.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Label pointed to airtime revenue per network, with Vodacom (VOD) accounting for 53%; MTN (MTN) at 34%; Cell C, 10%; and Telkom (TKG), at 3%.<\/p>\n<p>For its South African distribution segment, Blue Label announced revenue of R9.088 billion, from R8.519 billion before.<\/p>\n<p>Revenue comprised sales of physical and virtual prepaid airtime, commissions on the distribution of prepaid electricity, and compounded annuity revenue generated from starter packs.<\/p>\n<p>The increase in revenue was predominantly volume-driven in all of these components, it said.<\/p>\n<p>Commissions earned on the distribution of prepaid electricity amounted to R41 million &#8211; from R30 million in 2010 &#8211; equating to revenue of R2.7 billion (2010: R1.5 billion) on behalf of the utilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Label Telecoms (BLU) says that its target of achieving 450,000 new connections per month for its prepaid airtime and starter-packs business are on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1640,1382,26,1641,1642],"class_list":["post-6489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-blu","tag-blue-label-telecoms","tag-headline","tag-prepaid","tag-starter-packs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6489"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6492,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489\/revisions\/6492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}