20th Feb 2020 10:56
(Alliance News) - Wilmington PLC on Thursday increased its interim dividend despite a drop in profit and growth in revenue for the period.
London-based Wilmington provides information, education and networking services to business professionals.
Also on Thursday, it announced the appointment of Helen Sachdev as non-executive director, with effect on April 29. Sachdev is founding director at WOMBA, a coaching practice assisting organisations to become more gender equal.
For the six months to the end of December, pretax profit dropped by 29% to GBP4.1 million from GBP5.8 million the year before.
The profit drop was attributed to a one-off gain on the sale of Wilmington's ICP business in the prior year which was not repeated in the recent period.
On an adjusted basis, pretax profit increased by 4% to GBP6.9 million from GBP6.7 million.
Revenue meanwhile grew by 2% to GBP59.5 million from GBP58.3 million the prior year, lifted by organic growth driven by strength in all of Wilmington's divisions.
Wilmington increased its dividend by 2% to 4.2 pence per share from 4.1p the prior year.
Looking ahead, the company said it expects revenue for its current financial year to be weighted towards the second half and is on-track to achieve annual revenue targets.
The additional cost of investment, however, means adjusted pretax profit for the year ending June is expected to be in line with the figure of GBP19.5 million reported the prior year, it said.
"The first half of the year has seen positive trading performance and we enter the second half with momentum continuing to build. Looking beyond this financial year, it is becoming clear that in order to drive the growth aspirations for the medium term, the business needs to invest further in its technology and digital content to ensure that its product portfolio is positioned in growth areas," said Chief Executive Officer Mark Milner.
Shares in Wilmington were down 3.3% at 234.00 pence on Thursday.
By Dayo Laniyan; [email protected]
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