Mauritius' Ciel Textiles H1 pretax profit up 24 pct

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius - Mauritian clothing maker Ciel Textiles reported a 24 percent rise in first-half pretax profit after an improved performance from its woven wear business.

The supplier of woven, knitwear and fine knits to Britain's Marks & Spencer and Next and Spain's Zara posted pretax profit of 409.58 million rupees for the six months to Dec. 31.

Its revenues climbed to 5.351 billion rupees from 5.016 billion 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 a statement late on Friday.

It said cost management measures are being taken to limit potential erosion of its profit margins due to the slide of the Euro and the rand.

Ciel Textiles, which is listed on the island's secondary Development and Enterprise Market, said its earnings per share rose to 3.13 rupees from 2.50 rupees a year earlier.

1 Mauritian rupee = $0.03/£0.02