UPDATE 1-S.Africa’s Omnia reports 2% jump in HY profit as mining offsets drought impact

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Nov 11 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Omnia Holdings reported a 2% increase in half-year profit on Monday, as growth in its mine blasting services segment helped offset the impact of a drought on its fertiliser business.

Omnia reported headline earnings per share of 2.88 rand ($0.1636) in the six months to Sept. 30, up from 2.82 rand a year ago.

Revenue from its mine supply segment grew 15% to 4.7 billion rand, helping group turnover rise 5% to 10.9 billion rand.

Meanwhile, revenue from the agriculture segment declined 4% to 5 billion rand as a severe drought due to El Nino hurt demand in Omnia’s African markets such as Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The company said it is seeing growth in the mine blasting segment on the back of expansion in mining operations both in the African market and internationally.

Omnia supplies fertilizer and mine blasting services in most sub-Saharan African countries and also has operations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia and the United States. ($1 = 17.6023 rand) (Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Sonali Paul and Varun H K)

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