13th Oct 2015 08:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC Tuesday said it is "well placed to meet its expectations", as it reported a swing to pretax profit for its first half.
The digital communications company proposed an interim dividend of 1.2 pence, up 20% from the 1.0p it paid a year before.
For the half year to end-July the company reported a pretax profit of GBP4.22 million, swung from a pretax loss of GBP4.23 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP61.8 million from GBP52.2 million, and in the previous year it booked impairment charges of GBP7.0 million.
Stripping out acquisition, amortisation and other one-off costs, pretax profit rose to GBP7.2 million from GBP5.4 million.
The company cited a strong performance in its North American business, where organic revenue rose 10%, and said profitability doubled in its Asia Pacific and UK operations. In Asia Pacific, the company said it improved profitability by taking steps to simplify the business, whilst in the UK profitability was boosted by acquisitions and margin gains in its existing agencies.
Next Fifteen said its current trading is "encouraging", with good activity levels and a boost from recent acquisitions. Although it is increasing investment - in particular opting to increase investment in product development and sales support at its Agent3 business in its second half - Next Fifteen said it is on track to meet expectations in its current year.
Shares in Next Fifteen were up 0.9% at 200.33 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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