JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African pharmacy group Dis-Chem Pharmacies reported a 16.3% rise in half-year earnings on Friday, citing cost savings.
The group’s headline earnings per share (HEPS), a key metric of profit for South African companies, rose to 67.7 cents in the six months ended Aug.31 from 58.2 cents a year earlier.
“The biggest contributor to earnings growth was the containment of group payroll cost….which delivered positive operating leverage with operating profit growing at 17.5% ahead of group revenue growth of 9.6%,” the company said in a statement.
Its operating profit grew to just over 1 billion rand ($57 million), while group revenue increased to 19.6 billion rand.
The group, which has 274 retail pharmacy stores, reported retail revenue growth of 7.1% at 16.7 billion rand.
The company declared an interim dividend of 26.98 cents up from 23.2 cents in 2023.
Top rival Clicks Group on Thursday reported 14.3% growth in full-year HEPS.
($1 = 17.6774 rand)
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; editing by Jason Neely)
