5th Aug 2014 10:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - Car Retailer Pendragon PLC Tuesady reported higher profit for the first half of the year, as sales of used and new cars and aftersales services grew, and it boosted the number of visitors to its website by 16% to over 8 million.
The seller of car brands including Ford and Vauxhall through to premium brands like Maserati and Mercedes-Benz wants to be the UK's leading car retailer on the internet. It said the drive to garner more online traffic was yielding "sizeable" benefits for the company.
Pendragon has reporting improving earnings in the last few years as the new car market has picked up since the financial crisis and ensuing economic downturn hit demand in 2008 and 2009.
It reported a pretax profit of GBP33.2 million for the six months to June 30, up from GBP16.7 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP2.07 billion, from GBP2.02 billion.
It raised its interim dividend to 0.3 pence, from 0.1p, and expressed confidence for the rest of the year.
"After a strong start to 2014 and our momentum across all areas, we are well placed for the full year. September is an important month for new car sales and we will update the market when we have visibility of this. Our performance for the full year remains comfortably in line with expectations," it said in its earnings statement.
Pendragon shares were up 3.4% at 32.05 pence Tuesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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