In the short term, the Liberty Group was not immune to the current South African economic downturn, Chief Executive Bruce Hemphill said on Wednesday after the group released its interim results for the half-year ended 30 June 2008.

Liberty had also been affected by "the volatility that has been a feature of local and global investment markets so far in 2008," Hemphill said.

"Our performance does largely correlate to market conditions and interest rates."

Compared to the half-year to June 2007, Liberty's BEE-normalised headline earnings per share (HEPS) — before accounting for investment gains and losses — were 10.3 percent lower, at 431.5c per share.

After taking account of investment gains and losses however, BEE-normalised HEPS were 44.8 percent lower than at the halfway stage last year, at 321.8c per share.

Liberty maintained its dividend policy — the dividend of 164c per share represented a 13.9 percent increase over 2007's interim.

Despite difficult market conditions, Hemphill said he was satisfied with the strategic progress Liberty had made during the period.

"The business is far better positioned for growth and a return to a longer-term trend of increasing earnings than it was six months ago," he said.

Sapa