31st Jul 2018 13:13
LONDON (Alliance News) - LSL Property Services PLC said Tuesday its first-half profit decreased despite a marginal increase in revenue as the company believes it will meet its full-year expectations.
In the six months ended June, the residential property services company said pretax profit decreased 51% to GBP6.4 million from GBP13.2 million the year before.
LSL Property's revenue increased 1% to GBP152.9 million from GBP151.5 million.
The company said its fall in profits reflected the decrease in margins in both of its divisions - Estate Agency and Surveying, an increase in contingent consideration relating to acquisitions and a share based payment reserve charge of GBP600,000 - compared to GBP145,000 credit booked in the first half of 2017.
The company's residential sales income was down 11% to GBP32.9 million from GBP37.0 million, due to lower market activity in the period.
LSL Property is proposing an interim dividend of 4.0 pence per share, flat on the year before. The company claim this is a measure of its confidence in meeting expectations.
LSL Property believes market conditions were "softer" than expected but its first half financial performance still met guidance.
The company remains confident of delivering full-year underlying operating profit in line with expectations. Performance is expected to be weighted more to the second half than in 2017.
LSL Property's Estate Agency division sales pipeline is ahead of previous expectations and its Surveying division's current trading is "positive".
Chairman Simon Embley said: "The group has delivered a resilient first half revenue performance in the context of challenging residential property market conditions. Whilst Residential Sales volumes remained suppressed, revenue trends in other parts of our business are more robust due to our ongoing self-help measures. Our Lettings and Financial Services businesses continue to perform positively and Financial Services income now represents 33% of total Estate Agency division income.
"During the first half, Lloyds Bank awarded LSL a material five-year contract to deliver surveying and valuation services which demonstrates the market leading proposition that we are able to offer our customers and reflects well on our technology investment."
Shares in LSL Property were down 1.2% Tuesday at 255.80 pence each.
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