27th Nov 2018 09:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - De La Rue PLC on Tuesday said profit more than halved in the first half of its current financial year as it progressed on business transformation.
The banknote maker said pretax profit in the six months ended September 29 dropped to GBP7.1 million from GBP18.9 million reported for the first half of 2017.
The result was hurt by a rise in operating expenses, which grew to GBP247.5 million from GBP220.1 million, due to investment in research & development and sales & marketing activities.
Revenue rose by 5.3% to GBP257.6 million from GBP244.7 million year-on-year. Excluding paper, revenue was up 9%.
Figures reported on the "excluding paper" basis have been adjusted to exclude revenue from non-novated contracts with no profit margin.
De La Rue maintained its interim payout at 8.3 pence a share.
Banknote print volumes improved by 3% during the period to 3.6 billion notes, as order intake rose 30% year-on-year. The company said it benefited from the continued investment in research & development, and sales.
"We continue to make progress in delivering against our strategic plan to transform the group into a less capital intensive, more technology-led business," said Chief Executive Martin Sutherland.
"We maintain a strong order book and pipeline which provides good visibility for the second half of this year and into next year," added Sutherland.
De La Rues shares were trading down 1.8% on Tuesday at 453.50p each.
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