LONDON (Alliance News) - FAIRFX Group PLC Tuesday said its half-year pretax loss widened, as increased marketing and IT expenditure, as well as growth in headcount, more than offset an increase in revenue on the back of the addition of more customers.
FairFX, which joined AIM in August, said it made a GBP582,984 pretax loss in the six months ended June 30, compared with a GBP162,912 loss in the corresponding period last year.
FAIRFX, which enables personal and business customers to make low-cost multi-currency payments through its cloud-based peer-to-peer payments platform, said revenue increased by just more than two-thirds to GBP222.8 million. The group said its multi-pay product lines were up 52% on the corresponding period of 2013, growing to GBP125.0 million. The single-pay offering increased by 93% to GBP97.0 million.
The group said 44,094 retail customers were added during the six-month period, bringing the total to 362,407. In the equivalent period last year, the group saw the addition of 26,175 retail customers.
However, first-half marketing expenditure increased by 50% to about GBP750,000, while headcount rose to 50 from 41. The group employed 35 people at the end of June 2013.
Chief Executive Ian Strafford-Taylor said the growth in revenue was expected, and said the group is focused on implementing its strategy.
"We are carrying on our strategy of deployment of marketing resources allied to ongoing technological innovation to drive market share across our four segments of cards, physical currency, FairPay and dealing. Trading has continued to be very encouraging into the second half and the board sees significant market share opportunities both in the UK and overseas. Consequently, we view the future with confidence," Strafford-Taylor said in a statement.
FAIRFX said it intends to launch in Ireland by the end of the year, under plans to expand beyond the UK.
FAIRFX shares were Tuesday quoted up 1.5% at 76.15 pence.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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