LONDON (Alliance News) - Taptica International Ltd, a mobile advertising company formerly known as Marimedia Ltd, said Wednesday its pretax profit was down in 2015 due to the group incurring higher administrative costs than in 2014, but added it is in a stronger position for 2016.
Taptica said pretax profit dropped to USD2.8 million for the year ended December 31, from USD8.2 million the previous year, after administrative costs came in higher "as a result of the full twelve-month contribution of costs associated with being a public company". Taptica also pointed to the costs of opening of a New York office and expanding its San Francisco office.
General and administrative costs for 2015 came in at USD5.4 million, up from USD2.9 million in 2014. Taptica listed on AIM in May 2014.
Taptica's revenue rose 20% to USD75.8 million for the year from USD63.1 million, but said this was offset by higher selling and marketing expenses as investments were made to enhance brand recognition and expand customer base.
As such, Taptica lowered its full-year dividend, in line with its policy of distributing 25% of net profits, to 0.784 cent per share, down from the 2.300 cents that Marimedia paid for 2014.
In September 2015, Taptica acquired mobile network group AreaOne Ltd for USD15.4 million, which it said reduced the overall group's profit by suffering a loss of USD592,000.
"Looking ahead, we entered 2016 in a better position than we did last year as the company's mobile offering continues to gain traction with household-named brands as well as seeing expanding demand for its solutions," said Chief Executive Hagai Tal.
"We expect significant growth from AreaOne as advertisers increasingly demand traffic supply and data collection from social media channels. The business continues to diversify geographically and is experiencing sustained growth in its core database," Tal added.
Shares in Taptica were down 0.6% at 80.00 pence on Wednesday.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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