South Africa's Comair sees annual earnings boost from SAA payment

Comair expects its full year headline earnings per share (HEPS) to rise by more than 20%, boosted by a US$78m payment from embattled South African Airways, it said Thursday. HEPS, the main profit measure in South Africa, came in at 69.5 cents in the previous year. Excluding the settlement, HEPS is expected to be 20% lower, the owner of low-cost airline Kulula.com and franchise partner of British Airways said. SAA was ordered to pay Comair $78m to settle an antitrust case in February after travel agent incentive schemes were deemed anti-competitive by a competition body, paving the way for a damages claim by Comair. Comair said that it is still assessing the full impact of the settlement, which will be disclosed in its financial report for the year ended June 30 2019. But it expects the award to increase HEPS by 277.43 cents. <br/>