PORT LOUIS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - (Reuters) - Mauritianclothing maker Ciel Textiles reported a 24 percentrise in first-half pretax profit after an improved performancefrom its woven wear business.
The supplier of woven, knitwear and fine knits to Britain'sMarks & Spencer and Next and Spain's Zara posted pretax profit of 409.58 million rupees for thesix months to Dec. 31.
Its revenues climbed to 5.351 billion rupees from 5.016billion a year ago.
"Order books in our Asian operations remain very strong,whilst sales and margins in the region are under pressure,particularly in the knitwear sector," the firm said in astatement late on Friday.
It said cost management measures are being taken to limitpotential erosion of its profit margins due to the slide of theEuro and the rand.
Ciel Textiles, which is listed on the island's secondaryDevelopment and Enterprise Market, said its earnings per sharerose to 3.13 rupees from 2.50 rupees a year earlier. (Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Marks & Spencer (MKS)
Next (NXT)