10th Sep 2015 09:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - Billing Services Group Ltd Thursday reiterated its guidance for its full year, and reported a rise in pretax profit as a result of one-off gains in its first half despite seeing a fall in revenue.
The financial products and services provider reported a pretax profit of USD6.8 million, up from USD3.3 million a year before, as it recognised a USD5.1 million one off gain as the company clawed back refunds from current and former clients related to the class-action ligation it has launched against two billing and collection services companies. Its gross margin improved to 49.2% in the first half, compared to 46.8% in the previous year.
The company continues to expect earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between USD6.5 million to USD7.0 million for 2015, on revenue in the range of USD37.0 million and USD39.0 million, although it noted that current trends are toward the lower end of each range.
Revenue declined to USD18.8 million from USD22.1 million and Billing Services cautioned that its revenue in the second half will continue to be hit by the decline in billable long distance and operator service calls on landlines, although it expects this to partially offset by revenue gains from services to the wireless markets.
"The first half earnings were in line with expectations. Overall revenues declined, but we succeeded in generating additional revenues from higher-margin services for the wireless market. A strong cash flow from operations has positioned us to fully amortise our term loan by September 30, 2015," Chief Executive Officer Norman Phipps said in a statement.
Shares in Billing Services were untraded Thursday morning. It last closed at 3.75 pence.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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