Prominent South African tech company posts a huge loss

Blu Label Unlimited swung back to a loss in the first half of its 2026 financial year, as the company’s expenses shot up due to Cell C’s listing and restructuring costs.

Blu Label is a South African technology company that wholly owns The Prepaid Company, has a stake in Comm Equipment Company, and is the former owner of telecoms company Cell C.

On Wednesday, 25 February, Blu Label released its results for the six months ended 30 November 2025, which marks the first half of its 2026 financial year.

These results revealed that while the company managed to increase its revenue by over 20% to R8.51 billion, it swung to a total comprehensive loss of R4.83 billion, a significant decline from the R399 million profit it recorded the previous year.

Blu Label reported an operating loss of R4.38 billion, down from a R556.38 million operating profit.

The company’s earnings were also in the red, with a basic loss per share of 555.56 cents per share, compared to earnings of 43.98 cents per share in the first half of its 2025 financial year.

These downswings can be, in part, attributed to a R161.67 million impairment recognised in the six-month period, as well as higher bad debts and expected credit losses.

The company’s other expenses also shot up by over 2,000% to R7.49 billion. This was primarily due to accounting effects arising from Blu Label’s restructuring and listing of Cell C.

The largest contributor was a R6.03 billion loss recognised on its disposal of The Prepaid Company’s investment in Cell C and Comm Equipment Company, as well as R319 million in transaction costs related to Cell C’s listing.

However, the company considers these costs short-term pain for long-term gain, saying the interim period marked a “defining milestone” for the group.

It explained that, with the successful conclusion of Cell C’s IPO and the completion of a multi-year strategic reset, Blu Label is now a more focused, capital-light and platform-driven business.

“The successful Cell C IPO represents the culmination of a long and deliberate journey,” joint CEO and founder Brett Levy said. 

“It unlocks value, removes complexity from the group and gives investors a far clearer view of Blu Label Unlimited as a standalone, high-quality digital enablement platform.” 

“Importantly, it also gives us greater strategic and financial flexibility as we execute the next phase of growth.”

Joint CEO and founder Mark Levy, added that, with Cell C now standing on its own, Blu Label is sharper, simpler and better positioned to scale. 

“Over the past six months, we’ve moved decisively from restructuring to execution – focusing capital and management attention on businesses that are cash-generative today and capable of delivering meaningful growth tomorrow,” he said. 

This included making significant inroads through BLU Energy into improving energy accessibility throughout the country.”

BluEnergy Trading was recently granted a multi-year energy trading licence by South Africa’s energy regulator, allowing it to participate in the country’s electricity market by buying and selling power.

On the back of this positive operational momentum, Blu Label’s board opted to resume dividend payments, declaring a dividend of 43.56 cents per share.