LONDON (Alliance News) - CentralNic Group PLC on Wednesday reported a widened interim loss on increased administrative expenses and finance costs.
In the six months ended June, the domain name registry widened its pretax loss to GBP1.4 million from GBP780,000.
CentralNic's revenue increased 5.7% to GBP11.2 million from GBP10.6 million.
The company's administrative expenses increased to GBP4.7 million from GBP3.4 million. CentralNic's finance costs also increased to GBP359,000 from GBP102,000.
The increase in costs is related to the company's recent acquisitions of KeyDrive and GlobeHosting.
KeyDrive - which sells internet domain names, web hosting, and advertising tools - recorded revenue of USD31.8 million in the first half. CentralNic completed the GBP24 million reverse takeover in August, post period end.
GlobeHosting's revenue in the year to July was EUR849,000 and it recorded earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization of EUR419,000.
The company is "confident" it is on track to meet market expectations for the full year. In 2017, CentralNic's pretax profit was GBP1.4 million on revenue of GBP24.4 million.
The acquisitions made in the period are driving the board's confidence. CentralNic expects its performance will be back-end loaded.
The company, due to its "highly cash generative" business, has committed to start paying a dividend, with the initial payout coming in 2019.
Chairman Mike Turner said: "Our first half results are most encouraging as CentralNic continues to deliver consistent organic growth whilst at the same time concluding earnings enhancing acquisitions.
"CentralNic's organic growth and roll-up strategy continues to be bolstered by a determination to escalate the size and scale of the business by concentrating on activities which will deliver high quality earnings and recurring revenues focused on the higher-margin and higher-growth segments of the market."
Shares in CentralNic were down 1.9% Wednesday at 51.00 pence each.
