25th Sep 2019 10:56
(Alliance News) - Mission Marketing Group PLC has changed its name, it announced on Wednesday, following a half of solid progress.
Mission Marketing is now called Mission Group PLC, trading under the ticker "TMG" from Friday this week. Shares were down 2.3% on Wednesday morning in London at 82.05 pence each.
Chief Executive James Clifton said: "We remain on a mission to help brands thrive, but we aim to do that by being a trusted business partner, not limited to marketing communications. Today's name change reflects that ambition."
Mission's revenue for the six months to June rose 9% from continuing operations to GBP39.2 million. This figure excludes BroadCare, which was sold last November. Billings rose 5% to GBP82.3 million.
Statutory pretax profit fell 21% to GBP2.7 million, mainly due to a rise in operating expenses and acquisition costs.
The headline figure, which is based on continuing operations and excludes gains or losses on investments, acquisition costs, and start-up losses, rose 10% to GBP3.4 million.
Mission has increased its interim dividend by 10% to 0.77p per share.
The company met revenue and profit targets, it said, with the balance sheet remaining strong, despite a continued challenging market.
Looking ahead, the company said: "We have re-named our group the Mission Group PLC and put Mission at the forefront of our new business activity as the alternative group for ambitious brands, with a new visual identity.
"In addition, we have refined our business structure to create a simplified, more effective service offering. Three key structural changes are: the merger of bigdog and krow into a single integrated agency, retaining the name krow; the expansion of Story into Leeds and Newcastle, taking on our Robson Brown agency; and the merger of April Six and RLA into a single agency to leverage both complementary skill-sets and the existing April Six international footprint," Mission added.
Most profit will be generated in the second half, as usual, Mission continued, and it is confident on meeting expectations.
By George Collard; [email protected]
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