Truworths lifts H1 profit on acquisition

Clothing retailer Truworths reported a 21 percent increase in half-year profit on Thursday, boosted by the recent acquisition of a British footwear chain.

Truworths, South Africa's second-largest listed apparel retailer, said headline EPS totalled 404 cents in the six months to the end of December compared with 333 cents a year earlier.

The Cape Town-based company last November bought British footwear retailer Office for 5.5 billion rand ($359 million). Without the contribution of Office, Truworths headline EPS would have grown by 16 percent.

Truworths, which sells about 70 percent of its products on its own store credit cards, has been struggling to grow the bottom-line at faster pace as cash-strapped consumers chased after marked-down, low-margin items.

Shares in Truworths rose as much as 4 percent shortly after the announcement before paring gains to trade 1.8 percent higher at 95.49 rand by 1410 GMT.

- Reuters