S.Africa's Barloworld boosts H1 profit, Russia unit robust

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African industrial group Barloworld Ltd boosted first-half profit by a third on Monday, as a solid result in its Russian mining equipment business offset slack demand at home.

Barloworld, which also sells cars and forklifts, said headline earnings per share totalled 321 cents in the six months to end-March compared with 245 cents a year earlier.

Headline EPS, the primary measure of profit in South Africa, strips out certain one-off items.

Barloworld, the biggest dealer of Caterpillar earth-moving equipment in southern Africa, is a barometer for the health of the region's vast mining industry.

Mining companies in South Africa have been forced to scale back capital expenditure due to faltering commodity prices and wildcat strikes.

Barloworld said revenue rose 11 percent to 31.3 billion rand helped also by strong sales of Bucyrus heavy-duty equipment.

The company paid $165 million for rights to Caterpillar's Bucyrus business -- whose products include trucks and loaders used in mining -- in South Africa, Botswana and Russia.

Shares in Barloworld have gained about 8 percent so far this year largely in line with a 6 percent gain on the All-share index

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africas-barloworld-boosts-h1-profit-russia-unit-robust-065310566.html

match day nene dark shadows trailer nate mcmillan clooney arrested southern miss rod blagojevich