28th Jul 2020 12:15
(Alliance News) - Quartix Holdings PLC on Tuesday said interim earnings edged higher, allowing the vehicle tracking systems firm to raise its payout.
Shares in the company climbed 13% to 350.00 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.
Revenue in the six months to June 30 rose 4.3% to GBP13.1 million from GBP12.6 million, with pretax profit rising 28% to GBP4.3 million from GBP3.4 million.
The subscription base climbed 6.6% to 160,648 vehicles from 150,640 vehicles at the end of December.
"We are pleased that, despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we have achieved growth of 7% in our fleet subscription base and excellent financial results for the first half. Having started the year 30% ahead of last year in terms of new fleet subscriptions, both fleet and insurance installations were very badly affected in late March and throughout April. Since then our new fleet subscriptions have progressed each month and insurance installations have also increased," Chief Executive Officer Andy Walters said.
"Provided that the effects of any second wave of infection in our target markets are limited we expect our field and distribution sales to start their recovery during the coming months; we would then expect profit for the full year to be at least in line with market estimates prior to the pandemic."
The company proposed an interim payout of 2.50p per share, up 4.2% from 2.40p. On top of this, it will pay a supplementary dividend of 0.87p per share, something it did not offer in the first half of last year.
However, Quartix back in March had pulled its final dividend for 2019, recommending shareholders reject the motion to approve the 10.00p payout at its annual general meeting, due to the need to conserve cash during the Covid-19 lockdown.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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