25th Apr 2018 13:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - Character Group PLC on Wednesday upped its interim dividend despite a fall in profit and revenue.
The games and giftware distributor said pretax profit in the six months ended February fell to GBP4.5 million from GBP7.1 million for the same period the year before, as revenue declined to GBP50.5 million from GBP61.5 million.
Character made significant proportion of its purchases in US dollars, the company said, and therefore suffered from foreign currency fluctuations. This resulted in a GBP3.9 million charge versus GBP568,000 the year earlier.
Selling and distribution expenses grew year-on-year to GBP5.0 million from GBP4.5 million while administration costs rose to GBP8.7 million form GBP8.3 million.
During the first half, the company said it bought back about 338,700 shares at a price of 403.00 pence each, totalling GBP1.4 million.
The stock was trading 1.6% lower at 467.50p per share on Wednesday.
Despite the profit fall, Character increased its total dividend by 22% to 11.00p from 9.00p the year before.
"Although trading in the first half was lower when compared to 2017, we believe that in view of the sector disruption and upheaval, Character delivered a very solid performance in what has been a very turbulent time at the retail level," the company said.
"The directors remain optimistic that the business will see a return to its previous growth pattern during the second half of this financial year and this will be fully reflected and significantly strengthen the trading results for the 2019 financial year," it added.
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