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LONDON (Alliance News) - Monitoring systems company Vianet Group PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit rose in the first half due on higher revenue and said it has struck a deal to sell its fuel division to Wayne Fueling Systems Ltd.
Vianet's pretax profit in the half to the end of September was GBP1.2 million, up from GBP796,000 a year earlier, as revenue increased to GBP9.8 million from GBP9.1 million.
The group's vending division continued to strengthen, albeit at a slower growth rate than a year earlier, with its main unit sales in the coffee vending market. The company also said it secured a series of contract renewals for its leisure business and installed more of its iDraught systems, which help pub owners to control the amount of wastage from draught beer pumps.
For both the vending and iDraught units, however, the number of installations in the first half shrank significantly year-on year. Vending unit sales in the half hit 2,410, down from 3,926 a year before, while iDraught installations fell to 139 from 261.
The group said it would pay a flat interim dividend of 1.70 pence.
"Looking forward, we have achieved some important contract extensions and new wins with key customers in both leisure and vending, where coffee telemetry and contactless payment solutions continue to drive growth," said Chairman James Dickson.
Separately, the company said it has struck a deal to sell its Vianet Fuel Solutions Ltd unit for GBP3.5 million to Wayne Fueling Systems, a US-based supplier of fuel dispensers, payment terminals and petrol forecourt control devices. The Fuel Solutions unit provides a range of information management and associated forecourt products.
Vianet said the sale will allow it to focus on its vending and leisure businesses and consolidate its financial resources.
"Over the past two years we have made significant progress to establish a strong reputation for Vianet Fuel Solutions in the UK forecourt sector and to turn the business around to a good level of profit this year," said Dickson.
"VFS operates in a competitive landscape which is increasingly dominated by major global players, such as Wayne, and therefore we believe it is now, strategically, a good time for the group to sell VFS to Wayne who will continue to build on the strong foundations we have built," he added.
Shares in Vianet were down 0.3% to 103.85p on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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