3rd Sep 2019 09:26
(Alliance News) - Belvoir Group PLC on Tuesday maintained its interim dividend as it reported a continued outperformance of its markets.
For the six months to the end of June, the estate agent franchisor's pretax profit dipped to GBP2.7 million from GBP2.9 million the year before.
This was due to a one-off gain of GBP745,000 as net credit in the first half of 2018, relating to the final settlement of the Northwood contingent consideration being less than the provision for the consideration assessed at completion.
This was associated with the second tranche of the deferred consideration for Belvoir's GBP22.0 million acquisition of independent UK lettings franchise Northwood GB Ltd announced in June 2016.
Revenue however, grew by 48% to GBP9.0 million from GBP6.1 million, reflecting a contribution from the acquisition of MAB (Gloucester) Ltd and growth in Belvoir's underlying business.
In November, Belvoir acquired MAB Glos, a subsidiary of Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) PLC and provider of mortgage and other related financial services for GBP3.6 million.
The acquisition saw the Financial Services division increase its revenue almost by fourfold to GBP4.0 million from GBP1.3 million.
Meanwhile, Belvoir reported an increase in Management Service Fees by 5% to GBP4.2 million from GBP4.0 million.
The MSF division saw its lettings increase by 4% while property sales grew by 7%, against house price inflation of 0.9% and property transactions down by 2.2%. The number with managed properties increased by 6% to 64,650 from 61,100.
Belvoir Lettings maintained its interim dividend at 3.4 pence per share.
"I am delighted to report another half year of further strategic and trading progress for the group, with our diversification into financial services building on the growth of the underlying business. Trading across lettings, sales and financial services continues to outperform their respective markets and deliver strong results for the group," said Chief Executive Officer Dorian Gonsalves.
"I am pleased to further report that Belvoir has achieved a promising start to the second half, and as such the company is on track to meet management expectations for the full year," Gonsalves added.
Shares in Belvoir Group were up 5.9% at 117.00 pence on Tuesday.
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