LONDON (Alliance News) - Mission Marketing Group PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit edged down in 2015 due to one-off costs, though revenue increased and the group said its outlook for 2016 was solid.
Mission said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December declined to GBP5.1 million from GBP5.4 million a year earlier, hit by the group booking costs related to the restructuring of its operations and from start-up costs linked to new offices in Asia and the US.
Revenue grew to GBP61.0 million from GBP55.0 million, up 11%, mostly due to acquisitions Mission made in 2014 and 2015. The year was heavily-weighted to the second half, Mission said, resulting in a higher proportion of business coming in towards the end of 2015 and driving its operating margin to 14% for the second half, compared to 11.4% for the full year.
Mission said it expects to make more progress in 2016 and said revenue visibility for the year is robust. It also anticipates more benefits flowing through from the acquisitions made in 2015.
It will pay a final dividend of 0.9 pence per share, taking its total dividend up 9.0% year-on-year to 1.2p.
"A cracking second half performance from our agencies helped us deliver our forecasted numbers and springboard us into 2016 in very good shape," said Chairman David Morgan.
"Further progress is expected in 2016. We have a high degree of visibility of forecast revenue and fully expect to benefit from the acquisitions and investments we made during 2015. In addition, we have a number of new initiatives planned. It looks set to be another busy and productive year," he added.
Shares in Mission were up 5.5% to 45.90p Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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