ISL.L Share News (ISL)

Hardware and software developer IS Solutions cited a strong pound as one of the contributing factors to its first half pre-tax loss.The company swung from a profit of £0.34m in the first six months of 2013 to a pre-tax loss of £0.32m in the corresponding period in 2014, while revenue declined from £5m to £3.4m."The board remains confident of achieving the market expectations for the full year based on recent business wins and the depth and quality of the prospects pipeline, following a weaker first quarter," group chairman Barrie Clark in a statement.The strength of the sterling caused a 9.4% reduction in its day rate to the company's US clients, IS said, while the group also said it expected to resume payment of the dividend after it had chosen not to pay an interim dividend in order to maintain its cash reserves intact.The firm's analytics business was affected by a lack of new project work, though the company remained upbeat as it had secured a number of proofs of concepts in the third quarter, which are expected to lead to longer-term deals for the final quarter of 2014.IS' portal business secured new contracts, including a two-year deal for the hosting and management of an Adobe-based online meeting system for the UK government, which are expected to provide revenue for the second six months of the year.IS shares dropped 16.67% to 45p at 16:44 on Monday.