Advtech shares advance on higher half-year earnings
Shares in Advtech rose in early trade on Wednesday after the education and recruitment group said earnings improved in the first half of 2019.
Earlier in August, shares in rival schools operator Curro fell sharply after that company said earnings growth slowed significantly in the six months to end-June.
Advtech said on Wednesday that thanks partly to once-off transactions, headline earnings per share for the same period grew 25%-35%.
Normalised earnings per share, a metric that excludes once-off items, grew 2%-6% on a comparative basis.
Advtech’s shares rose as much as 4.3% in early trade to R11.49.
After Curro disappointed the market with a slowdown in earnings, analysts expected weaker numbers from Advtech too, citing low increases in education fees. Advtech is headed by CEO Roy Douglas.
Advtech’s shares were 2.7% up at R11.32 at 9.52am on Wednesday. Curro’s shares were 2.5% up at R21.20, the best level since early August.