19th Nov 2024 12:00
(Alliance News) - GB Group PLC on Tuesday said it returned to profit in the first half of its financial year, citing a strong performance in its Identity and Location segments and progress on operational efficiency.
The Chester, England-based software company specialising in fraud prevention and identity verification swung to a pretax profit of GBP5.6 million for the six months to September 30, compared to a GBP57.3 million loss a year earlier, as revenue rose 3.4% to GBP136.9 million from GBP132.4 million.
In the prior year, it had suffered a GBP54.7 million impairment of goodwill, which was not repeated this time around.
Progress in the half-year was driven by its Identity and Location segments, which saw revenue increase 6.0% to GBP80.3 million from GBP75.8 million, and 8.6% to GBP39.5 million from GBP36.4 million, respectively. This offset a 9.2% drop in Fraud revenue to GBP17.1 million from GBP18.8 million due to the timing of licence renewals.
GB Group attributed its "good half-year results" to cost-saving and simplification initiatives, alongside efforts to streamline its commercial processes.
Basic earnings per share improved to 0.6 pence in the fist-half, recovering from a loss of 21.8p in the prior year.
GB Group also reduced net debt to GBP71.9 million from GBP104.8 million.
GB Group reiterated its outlook for financial 2025, saying that trading since the half-year end has been in line with expectations. The company forecasts mid-single-digit revenue growth on a constant currency basis.
Revenue in financial 2024 totalled GBP277.3 million.
Additionally, operational efficiency improvements are projected to drive high single-digit growth in adjusted operating profit.
Chief Executive Officer Dev Dhiman said: "We are retaining customers and doing more with them, and our new customer acquisition continues to be strong. Combined with the continued benefit of our group-wide cost and simplification initiatives executed in the prior year, we have delivered a good first half outcome."
Shares in GB Group were up 5.5% at 360.20 pence in London on Tuesday afternoon.
By Eva Castanedo, Alliance News reporter
Comments and questions to [email protected]
Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights reserved.