18th Mar 2020 14:25
(Alliance News) - Cello Health PLC on Wednesday reported a reduction in annual profit after the impairment of its Signal Agency business.
The healthcare-focused advisory firm posted a GBP7.1 million pretax profit for 2019, down 24% from GBP9.4 million in 2018 despite revenue increasing 5.0% to GBP166.8 million from GBP158.9 million.
This shrink in profit came from "an impairment charge of GBP2.7 million in respect of Signal Agency" Cello explained. Cello reduced Signal's size in 2019, including by divesting Signal's Pulsar social media and analytics business.
Cello reported a loss after tax attributable to owners of the parent amounting to GBP943,000, compared to a GBP6.6 million profit after tax the prior year. This was due to a GBP5.8 million loss from discontinued operations, compared to a loss of only GBP717,000 on discontinued operations in 2018.
Cello increased its total dividend per share by 6.5% to 4.10 pence from 3.85p.
Chief Executive Mark Scott said: "We are very conscious of the uncertainty created by the Covid-19 virus and will continue to take appropriate cautionary measures to mitigate any impact, resulting from this, on the business. We remain confident of the long-term growth opportunity in the healthcare services arena."
Shares in Cello were down 4.6% at 105.00p in London on Wednesday afternoon.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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