30th Jul 2018 12:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - Digital media company GlobalData PLC said Monday it has increased its interim dividend as revenue rose on the back of an acquisition.
In the six months ended June 30, GlobalData increased its revenue 32% to GBP75.0 million from GBP56.8 million. The increase reflects the company's GBP97.3 million acquisition of Research Views Ltd and a 9% rise in organic growth.
Despite this, the media company swung to a pretax loss of GBP4.2 million from a GBP180,000 profit the year before. GlobalData's adjusted pretax profit increased to GBP12.6 million from GBP9.4 million.
The swing to a loss was attributed to GBP3.1 million restructuring and acquisition fees as well as increased finance costs from higher debt.
GlobalData has hiked its interim dividend 17% to 3.5 pence per share from 3.0 pence per share.
The company expects to make progress in the full year, mainly due to its 40% increase in deferred revenue to GBP70.4 million from GBP50.3 million.
Executive Chairman Bernard Cragg said: "We are on track to achieve our goal of becoming a world leading data and analytics business.
"In April we completed the largest acquisition that the group has made to date, comprising of 5 individual businesses brought together as part of the acquisition of Research Views. In the first half much of our focus has been on completing the deal and beginning the integration process of these businesses. It is encouraging that our organic businesses continued to perform well against the backdrop of our recent M&A activity."
He added: "During the second half of 2018, we will continue to integrate the newly acquired businesses, combining sales forces, content production and corporate infrastructure and together with the enhanced platform, coverage and user interface we believe we have laid solid foundations for future growth."
Shares in GlobalData were up 3.4% Monday at 610.00 pence each.
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