Blu Label Unlimited, formerly Blue Label Telecoms, has released a trading statement for the six months ended 30 November 2025, revealing a R5.2 billion loss relating to its investment in Cell C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excluding the impact of its investment in Cell C, the group would have reported revenue of R5 billion and gross income of R1.35 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, TPC’s disposal of its Cell C investment at the end of November 2025 significantly affected Blu Label’s reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“TPC disposed of a 50.45% shareholding and sold CEC to Cell C,” it said. “Consequently, Blu Label relinquished control of Cell C while retaining a 49.47% interest.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Blu Label Group, this resulted in Cell C being equity accounted as an associate from that date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Included in earnings for the six months ended 30 November 2025 is a net loss of R5.2 billion relating to the Group’s investment in Cell C, which is added back to headline earnings,” Blu Label said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It explained that the loss comprises R6 billion on the disposal of The Prepaid Company’s (TPC) investment in Cell C and Comm Equipment Company (CEC) following Cell C’s listing at a market value of R9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was partially offset by a gain of R841 million on the remeasurement of the previously held interest upon TPC’s acquisition of control of Cell C in September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, excluding the impact of Cell C, Blu Label’s loss turns into a net profit after tax of R389 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Blu would have reported revenue of R5 billion, gross income of R1.35 billion, EBITDA of R545 million, and net profit after tax of R389 million,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Core headline earnings would have totalled R398 million, equating to core headline earnings per share of 44.19 cents.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blu Label explained that only the gross profit earned on PINless top-ups, prepaid electricity, ticketing, and universal vouchers is recognised as revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, the imputed gross revenue generated from these sources amounted to R50.9 billion in the six months ended 30 November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These metrics provide a more meaningful indication of BLU’s underlying operational performance and
earnings base going forward,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The table below summarises key figures from Blu Label Unlimited’s trading statement for the six months ended 30 November 2025. Earnings figures are given in cents per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blu Label’s investment in Cell C hurt its earnings in the six months ended 30 November 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":384800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41906],"tags":[101320,1017,355,68672,76822],"class_list":["post-629902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-telecoms","tag-blu-label-unlimited","tag-blue-label-telecoms","tag-cell-c","tag-comm-equipment-company-cec","tag-the-prepaid-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629904,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629902\/revisions\/629904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Measure<\/th> November 2024<\/th> Range: November 2025<\/th> Change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Earnings per share<\/strong><\/td> 43.98<\/td> (556.44) to (554.68)<\/td> >(100%)<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> Headline earnings per share<\/strong><\/td> 46.01<\/td> 37.68 to 39.52<\/td> (18%) to (14%)<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> Core headline earnings per share<\/strong><\/td> 47.20<\/td> 40.64 to 42.53<\/td> (14%) to (10%)<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"