November 2, 09:01TechCentral

Altron increases dividends by 15% amid growth in IT services revenue

Altron has increased its interim dividends by 15%, bringing them to 55 cents per share, as revenues in the IT services segment began to recover after a two-year period of restructuring. Over the six months ending in August, IT services divisions' revenues grew for the first time since the restructuring, and Altron Digital Business became profitable after incurring a loss a year earlier.

However, the security division faced a sharp decline in profit. Earnings per share from continuing operations increased by 14% to 109 cents, aligning with the range of 107–112 cents that Altron indicated in September. The company's total revenue grew by 5% to 5.1 billion Rands, which the group described as the strongest interim growth in three years.

Operating profit increased by 13% to 622 million Rands, and net profit rose by 17% to 385 million Rands. EBITDA increased by 16% to 1.09 billion Rands.

Platform segments show growth

The platform divisions—Netstar, Altron FinTech, and Altron HealthTech—have once again become the main driver of growth, contributing 47% of total revenue and over 95% of operating profit. Annuity revenue in this segment increased by 11% to 2.2 billion Rands, now accounting for 92% of the segment's turnover.

CEO Werner Kapp noted that the group demonstrated the strongest revenue growth in three years while improving the quality and predictability of earnings through an increased share of annuity revenue and strong cash generation, which grew by 32% to over 1 billion Rands over the six months.

Growth in IT Services

Altron Digital Business, the group's largest IT services division, increased revenue by 8% to 1.6 billion Rands and posted an operating profit of 22 million Rands, compared to a loss of 42 million Rands a year earlier, reflecting improvements made in the second half of the previous fiscal year. Growth was driven by hardware: revenue from goods sales and related services increased by 42% to 502 million Rands, while revenue from maintenance, support, and outsourcing decreased by 10% to 505 million Rands. The company reported improved order volume and contract renewals.

Challenges in Altron Security

The situation at Altron Security was the opposite. Revenue fell by 18% to 207 million Rands, and operating profit dropped from 70 million to 29 million Rands. Altron attributed this to the timing of recognizing software revenue in its identification and digital signature business, as well as limited enterprise spending in its much smaller IT services component, where management initiated 'corrective actions.'

During the reporting period, the division completed the implementation of Zambia's national public key infrastructure—a system of digital certificates underpinning digital signatures and secure online identification. Meanwhile, Altron Document Solutions increased operating profit by 45% to 48 million Rands on a 4% revenue increase to 722 million Rands, and the Altron Arrow distribution business grew revenue by 35% to 388 million Rands.

Overall, IT services revenue grew by 4% to 2.5 billion Rands, and operating profit increased by 62% to 99 million Rands.

Performance of Key Segments

Altron FinTech remained the group's largest source of operating profit. Revenue grew by 14% to 858 million Rands, and operating profit by 17% to 300 million Rands. The number and volume of debit transactions processed increased by 14%, and the rental of point-of-sale devices grew by 61% to over 30,000.

Netstar's subscriber base increased by 8% to 2.3 million, with a stable churn rate of around 16%. Revenue grew by 6% to 1.3 billion Rands, with the 11% increase in annuity revenue to 1.2 billion Rands partially offsetting a 43% drop in equipment sales to 71 million Rands. EBITDA grew by 15% to 619 million Rands, and operating profit by 10% to 248 million Rands.

Netstar's revenue outside Africa, where its main operations are concentrated in Australia, decreased by 22% to 156 million Rands. Altron noted that the Australian business has 'stabilized and is profitable,' although its growth lags behind South Africa. The group characterized the current financial year as a 'targeted period of reset and investment' for Netstar, which announced plans in June to sell anonymized vehicle movement data.

Altron HealthTech increased EBITDA by 13% to 76 million Rands on a 2% revenue increase to 205 million Rands.

Cash and Loans

Cash generated from operating activities grew by 32% to 1.0 billion Rands. Capital expenditures increased by 21% to 447 million Rands, most of which was directed towards leasing devices for Netstar and point-of-sale terminals for Altron FinTech.

Altron reported that net cash at the end of the period exceeded 800 million Rands after paying out 755 million Rands to shareholders in June, including the final dividend for the 2026 fiscal year and a special dividend announced in May.

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uzdaily.uzOctober 31, 16:20

Uzbek startup Delever raises $380,000 in investment round

The Uzbek startup Delever, which develops a B2B SaaS platform for managing orders and deliveries for restaurants and retailers, has successfully raised $380,000 in an investment round.

The venture fund AloqaVentures led this round, investing $300,000, while Nexus Club added another $80,000. This investment is the second participation by AloqaVentures in the company; the fund previously invested in Delever in 2024.

Davron Parmonov, a partner at AloqaVentures and Nexus Angel Club, stated that the fund's initial investment was $100,000 during the pre-seed stage. According to Parmonov, the team quickly reached the break-even point and demonstrated growth in seven countries. The fund is now making additional follow-on investments because Delever intends to capture these markets and scale actively. He noted that the team is capable of both developing and selling its product.

The Delever platform integrates all necessary tools for businesses providing delivery services. These tools include order acceptance across all sales channels, integration with delivery aggregators and point-of-sale systems, as well as delivery and courier management.

Currently, the platform is used by over 1,400 restaurants and stores in seven countries, primarily in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The company plans to use the raised funds for further product development, expanding functionality, and entering new markets.

Co-founder and CEO of Delever, Fakriddin Yusupov, emphasized that restaurants offering delivery do not need numerous separate services, but rather a single integrated system. He also added that AloqaVentures' decision to reinvest was more significant for the company than the amount itself, as the fund had prior knowledge of the business before allocating additional capital.

Delever positions its platform as an operating system for restaurants and retailers with delivery services, consolidating sales channels, orders, aggregators, and delivery management into one interface. The company is registered in IT Park Uzbekistan and participates in Astana Hub, while Delever Ltd. is registered in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) in Kazakhstan.

business-standard.comOctober 26, 19:12

Meta plans to raise a record $95 billion through stock issuance to fund AI infrastructure

Meta Platforms announced on Monday plans to raise up to $95 billion in the largest stock offering in the company's history. This is due to the social network's intensive spending on expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

The company, which is the parent company of Facebook, launched public offerings totaling about $35 billion in common and preferred shares. Additionally, it intends to launch a separate market share sale program worth up to $60 billion.

A larger share sale program will be launched after the trading of new non-voting Class C shares begins, which is expected in the first quarter of 2027, although the company has not yet specified the exact timing and conditions of this sale.

Interest in Funding

Meta's fundraising plan, one of the largest among AI companies, attracted interest from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom for a total of up to $5 billion in Class A shares. This interest heightens concerns about the increasingly closed cycle of capital movement in the AI industry, as chip suppliers help finance the development of one of their largest clients.

Experts at William Blair noted that they expect investors to continue questioning the prospects for future capital raising and self-funding. Nevertheless, analysts believe that this financing strengthens Meta's confidence in the long-term return on AI investments and underscores the increasingly capital-intensive nature of pursuing this opportunity.

The company's shares fell by approximately 1.4 percent during morning trading. The latest fundraising campaign further demonstrates a trend among large technology corporations to utilize debt markets and raise equity capital to support their AI infrastructure, unlike the previous reliance on internal cash flow.

Meta's AI Spending

Earlier this year, Alphabet increased the size of its stock issuances to $84.75 billion. Separately, on Monday, it was announced that affiliate Apollo Global Management would acquire AI chips and server equipment to be leased to the aerospace firm Apollo, as part of a deal with total principal payments of about $40 billion.

Meta has committed to spending around $825 billion in the future, with the main driver of these expenses being growing investments in data centers, AI-related infrastructure, and cloud service computing power. However, such rapid expansion has led to the depletion of the company's historically strong free cash flow.

In the third quarter, the company reported a cash burn of $2.12 billion, marking the first negative free cash flow in over a decade, compared to positive cash flow of $10.63 billion the previous year. Nevertheless, the initial popularity of its consumer AI agent Muse and the release of a competitive new series of AI models partially justified Meta's significant investments.

William Blair analysts believe that Meta will ultimately create a profitable AI business, and the long-term return should help the company diversify, although this path may not be linear. According to the latest quarterly report, as of September 30, the company held $82.45 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and securities, while long-term debt stood at $80.92 billion.

Last week, Meta raised the lower bound of its annual capital expenditure forecast to a range of $135 to $145 billion. The company stated that it would issue Class C common stock in January 2027, which would effectively result in a two-to-one stock split, to finance acquisitions and retain key talent while maintaining Mark Zuckerberg's control as CEO.