29th Feb 2016 08:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mail and logistics company DX Group PLC swung to a big pretax loss for the first half, it said on Monday, in line with its revised expectations.
DX said it made a pretax loss of GBP88.4 million in the half to the end of December, compared to a GBP9.9 million profit a year earlier, due to a GBP88.4 million goodwill impairment charge it booked in the period due to challenging conditions in the industry.
Revenue fell to GBP141.6 million from GBP147.6 million.
DX said its management team continues to focus on dealing with the issues it has faced in the half, including volume erosion in the DX Exchange operation and slow conversion rates for its new business pipeline.
The group is progressing plans for a new central hub in the West Midlands and said its IT integration plans are moving forward.
It will pay an interim dividend of 1.0 pence per share, halved year-on-year, but committed to paying a 2.5p total dividend for the year as a whole. DX Group paid a 6.0p dividend for the year ended June 30, 2015.
"Although market conditions remain difficult, we have completed the managed exit of a number of unattractive contracts and have seen our sales team start to secure attractive new contracts. In addition, we continue to make steady progress with our strategic OneDX programme including our plans to develop our new central hub," said Petar Cvetkovic, chief executive of DX.
"Despite the current headwinds to the business, and with much to do still in the seasonally important second half, the board anticipates that the company will trade over the full year broadly in line with its expectations," he added.
Shares in DX were down 3.2% at 23.00 pence on Monday morning.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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