(Alliance News) - ULS Technology PLC on Wednesday skipped paying a final dividend in order to preserve cash in current market conditions, as earnings dropped for its recently ended financial year.
For the year to the end of March, ULS - which provides platforms for the UK conveyancing and financial intermediary businesses - pretax profit declined by 9.8% to GBP4.6 million from GBP5.1 million, due to an increase development resource spending for the acceleration of the group's product DigitalMove.
On an adjusted basis, pretax profit fell by 11% to GBP4.8 million from GBP5.4 million, on revenue that dropped by 5.6% to GBP28.3 million from GBP30.0 million.
ULS said it will not pay a final dividend for the year in order to preserve cash. As a result, the group's total dividend come to 1.25 pence per share, down 47% from 2.40p the prior year.
Looking ahead, ULS said that volumes have already started to recover towards pre-lockdown levels, but the housing market will remain uncertain for many months and it will take time for volumes to return to pre-Covid levels.
"There is no doubting that this year was one of the most challenging to date with the housing market affected by Brexit and then Covid-19, which is still impacting market conditions. We have been focusing on positioning ourselves for when the market turns and we are delighted to see the rapid increase in ULS instructions as the market has burst back in to life in June," said Chief Executive Steve Goodall.
Shares in ULS Technology were up 0.9% at 56.52 pence on Wednesday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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