29th May 2014 07:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - Retail payments and services company Paypoint PLC Thursday reported higher pretax profit for its last financial year, as it processed more transactions, cut costs, and as its joint venture parcel collection service with delivery company Yodel started making a profit.
The company reported a pretax profit of GBP46.0 million for the 52 weeks to March 31, up from GBP41.3 million in the 53 week period to March 31, 2013. That increase outperformed the 1.7% rise in revenue to GBP212.2 million, from GBP208.5 million.
It said its Collect+ service, which enables online sellers to send and return parcels and buyers to collect parcels from shops that are part of the network, made a GBP1.8 million profit compared with a GBP1.9 million loss the previous year, as transaction volumes grew 76% and revenue rose 92%.
This type of service is becoming increasingly popular, and many retailers with both stores and online operations have started click-and-collect services to allow shoopers to buy online and then collect the goods from their stores. The 50:50 joint venture between Paypoint and Yodel allows online-only operations to offer the same sort of service.
Paypoint's main businesses include payment systems allowing customers to do things like pre-pay for energy bills and top-up pay-as-you-go mobile phones. It has operations in the UK, Ireland and Romania.
Overall, the company's transaction volumes grew 3.9% and transaction value rose 4.6%. It said mobile transactions were up 45% to over 32 million, while online transactions grew 8.7%.
The company's overall gross margin rose to 45.7%, from 43.0%, as it cut the cost of sales. It said retailers? commission decreased to GBP64.9 million, from GBP69.1 million as a result of lower mobile top-up commission.
However, operating costs rose 10.5% as it invested in IT and its mobile and online operations.
"We will continue to invest in network expansion, innovative technology and new services to
improve the quality of these retail networks to enhance their competitive advantages and our retail yield," the company said in its outlook statement.
Chairman David Newlands, who will retire at the company's next annual general meeting, said trading so far in its current financial year had been in line with the company's expectations.
"Our retail networks in the UK and Romania should continue to deliver profitable growth from our strong client base and breadth of services," the company said.
It said it will pay a final dividend of 23.9 pence a share, bringing its total dividend for its last financial year to 35.3p, up from 30.4p a year earlier excluding the 15.0p special dividend it paid that year.
Paypoint shares were up 0.1% at 1,051 pence early Thursday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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