LONDON (Alliance News) - KCOM Group PLC Friday reported a drop in profit in its recently-ended financial year, as its sales declined and it booked an impairment charge against acquisitions it made back in 2004, though it still raised its dividend for the full year.
The telecommunications provider reported a pretax profit in the year to March 31 of GBP16.7 million, down more than half from the GBP50.5 million reported the prior year, as revenue fell 6.1% to GBP348 million from GBP370.7 million.
Profit was hit by a GBP33.9 million impairment charge against the goodwill balance of legacy activities associated with acquisitions made in 2004, as well as GBP7.5 million in restructuring costs relating to cost reduction, strategic IT investment and the move towards an integrated operating model, KCOM said, although the latter was largely offset by a GBP5.3 million cash receipt related to a rebate of prior year network rates.
Despite this, KCOM has raised its full-year dividend by 10% to 5.37 pence, from 4.88p the year before.
"Last year we began the second stage of the transformation of our business. I am pleased to report that there has been continued progress in our focus areas. In Hull and East Yorkshire, the strong demand for our Lightstream fibre-based services has been maintained and in the Enterprise and SMB markets, we continue to see growing interest in our cloud and collaboration related capabilities. These are the key opportunities for future growth," Chief Executive Bill Halbert said in a statement.
"In the coming year, we will seek to accelerate that progress, particularly in the Enterprise space where we see significant opportunity," Halbert added.
Shares in KCOM were trading down 1.5% at 95.75 pence early Friday.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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