24th Jun 2014 08:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - Benchmark Holdings PLC Tuesday said revenues have risen significantly but it swung to a pretax loss in the first half of the year, on the back of IPO costs and a big increase in research and development spend.
The sustainable food chain business said its trading performance in the first half of the year was in line with its expectations.
The company said it swung to a pretax loss of GBP1.8 million in the six months to March 31, from a pretax profit of GBP545,000 a year earlier, due to costs associated with its recent IPO on London's AIM market, a bigger spend of research and development expenditure, and pre-operational expenses for new ventures.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were GBP2.6 million, up from GBP1.6 million the prior year.
Revenues in the period rose 43% to GBP15.2 million, up from GBP10.6 million a year earlier.
Benchmark said that trading conditions since the start of the second half of the year have been positive and the outlook for the full year is in line with its expectations. It said it will review its dividend policy position at the end of the current financial year.
The company said it is also evaluating a number of acquisition opportunities. It said the acquisition of other intellectual property assets, including the aquaculture vaccine assets from Zoetis, has allowed its to expand and accelerate the development of its new product pipeline.
"The company has made notable progress in deploying the funds it raised at the IPO through significant investment in expanding manufacturing capacity, securing bolt-on acquisitions and new product development," said Chairman Alex Hambro in a statement.
Benchmark shares were down 0.8% at 86.35 pence Tuesday morning.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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