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LONDON (Alliance News) - Financial information firm ADVFN PLC said Thursday its pretax loss widened for the first half of its financial year, as sales fell in the period, and it encountered an "extremely disruptive and costly" defence against shareholders.
In a statement, ADVFN said it made a GBP471,000 pretax loss in the six months ended December 31, 2015, compared with a GBP590 pretax loss in the corresponding period of the prior year.
Revenue rose to GBP4.3 million from GBP4.8 million, resulting in gross profit increasing to GBP3.7 million from GBP4.0 million after including cost of sales.
No dividend was recommended.
ADVFN said it has seen improvement in the first few months of 2016, going into its second half.
"2015 was a tumultuous year for ADVFN. An unexpected attack to wrest control from your board during the year was extremely disruptive and very costly. We were pleased to see the matter conclude satisfactorily from the Company's perspective through the intervention of the FCA. Notwithstanding this, the business has subsequently held up well during a period of radical change (as discussed further below) and months of distraction and dislocation earlier," said Chief Executive Clem Chambers.
Shares in ADVFN were untraded on Thursday, having last traded at 27.00 pence.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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