LONDON (Alliance News) - Italian public relations firm SEC SpA said Wednesday an improved trading performance in 2018 led to a rise in profit and revenue, despite tough economic conditions.
For the year, SEC reported a pretax profit of EUR2.2 million, doubled from EUR1.1 million the year before.
This was on revenue that grew to EUR24.6 million from EUR21.0 million, due to client growth and strong performances from Cambre in Brussels, Belgium and SEC Latam in Bogota, Colombia.
SEC's operations in Italy also exceeded expectations, and the Spanish business saw a recovery from a challenging 2017 after a change in management.
However, SEC said that its German PR agency is still in a challenging situation due to specific market conditions and a need to refocus its business plan on alternative markets. The group expects to form a partnership with another German agency by the end of 2019.
Looking ahead, SEC is seeking to enlarge its operational footprint, with new acquisitions in France, Chile, Germany and the US.
Regarding its non-binding offer for a reverse takeover of fellow AIM-listed PR firm Porta Communications PLC, SEC said it "cannot predict if the merger will occur", but if it does, the resulting entity "would be of a size, know-how and market capability to further boost SEC growth and positioning as a global PR player".
Porta said earlier this month that SEC has until June 4 to make a firm offer, having extended the deadline following the announcement in early April of SEC's approach with an all-share merger proposal.
"Three years from the IPO in July 2016, the group is poised for further growth," said SEC Chair Luigi Roth.
Shares in SEC were untraded at 78.00 pence on Wednesday. Porta shares untraded at 0.60p.
