Pretoria - Jigsaw Holdings, the listed property company, had "a radical turnaround" in the six months to August.

Neville McIntyre, Jigsaw's chief executive, attributed this to management's dedicated approach, in conjunction with a very positive property market.

He said this was already contributing to sound results and an improvement in cash flow. Headline earnings a share improved to 2.68c from a loss of 5.25c despite revenue declining 28 percent to R35.9 million.

The decline in revenue was related to the sale of Yellow Button, Jigsaw's property administration business, with effect from the end of February.

Profit from operations improved to R4.74 million from a loss of R1.2 million and attributable profit to R141 000 from a loss of R4.39 million.

McIntyre said the property franchises contributed R453 000 to headline earnings, related services R421 000 and property development R216 000.  

He said the real estate networks Aida, ERA and Realty 1 Elk were performing well due to the relationship with mortgage originator MortgageSA and healthy growth through the establishment of several new franchisees.

"Although there have been unjustified negative perceptions around Jigsaw in recent months, resulting in a number of franchisees withdrawing from the network, the period reflected a net increase of eight franchisees.

"Our related services operations posted solid results with Ascendant Cashflow Solutions achieving the best trading months in its history," McIntyre said.

Jigsaw's shares closed unchanged at 28c on the JSE Securities Exchange yesterday.