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(Alliance News) - Vianet Group PLC on Thursday expressed confidence in its strategy following earnings growth in the first half of its current financial year.
The monitoring systems provider to the retail and hospitality industries reported almost doubled pretax profit of GBP1.8 million for the six months to the end of September compared to GBP993,000 a year earlier, as revenue grew by 9.4% to GBP8.4 million from GBP7.7 million.
Vianet explained that revenue growth was helped by growth in Smart Machines and a solid contribution from Smart Zones.
Smart Machines had a strong increase in the number of device connections, Vianet said, with growth in telemetry devices and contactless devices of 94% and 21%, respectively, over the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the underlying performance of Smart Zones' core beer monitoring business was encouraging, thanks to "good" traction in technology upgrades and further new sales of iDraught.
iDraught app helps pubs and bars better manage beer quality and waste.
The company maintained its interim payout at 1.70 pence a share.
Looking ahead, Chair James Dickson said: "We are confident that our significant investment in the group's cloud based IOT platform and new data analytics and insight led capabilities will accelerate Vianet's growth plans and develop higher quality revenue streams from existing customers and other industry sectors."
Vianet shares were trading 3.5% higher in London on Thursday at 147.00p each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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