Purple Group has made a fair value adjustment of R50 million in relation to subsidiary EasyEquities’ option to acquire a 51 percent stake in EasyCrypto, formerly known as DCX Capital.
Purple Group said in a trading statement on Friday that the value of the stake had increased significantly over the past six months due to increased investment activity and client adoption of the EasyCrypto 10 product.
Over 100 000 EasyEquities clients were invested in the EasyCrypto 10 bundle, with an investment value of more than R500m.
Purple Group said also that headline earnings per share for the year to August 31 were expected to rise by between 185-195 percent when compared to the 1.54 cents reported in the prior financial year to August 31, 2020.
Attributable profit improved from R14.4m in the prior period to between R43.50m-R45m, an increase of between R29.1m-R30.6m.
The increase in earnings was ascribed to a very sharp rise in EasyEquities’ profit before tax, which was expected to be between R96.2m-R99.6m, compared to R12.4m profit in the prior period, an increase of between 676-703 percent.
Pre-tax profit by the EasyEquities Group included profits from the core operations of R45.7m-R47.4m, compared to R11.2m in the prior period, an increase of 307-322 percent.
Purple Group’s GT247 subsidiary generated an attributable loss of R5.1m-R5.3m for the year, compared to an attributable profit of R18.4m in the prior period, due to a difficult trading year, “and should be seen in the context of the average attributable profit of R11.5m generated by GT247.com over the previous 5 years”, Purple Group said.
Emperor Asset Management’s attributable profit would be between R0.95m-R0.99m compared to R1.9m in the prior period.
Head Office and Investments, which includes the head office costs and the investment in Real People Investment Holdings, generated a lower attributable loss of R6.9m-R7.1m, compared to an attributable loss of R11.9m in the prior period.
The results for the 12 month period were expected to be published on or about November 10.
edward.west@inl.co.za
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE