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(Alliance News) - Vianet Group PLC reported a lower annual profit due to expenses and withdrew its final dividend but did note that it comfortably beat its revised forecasts in April.
Shares in Vianet were up 11% at 91.75 pence in London in morning trading.
The internet-of-things monitoring platform posted a GBP2.4 million pretax profit for its year ended March 31, down 11% from GP2.7 million the year before.
While revenue was 3.8% higher at GBP16.3 million compared to GBP15.7 million the year before, total administrative expenses rose to GP8.6 million from GBP7.9 million which resulted in a loss.
Vianet opted to withdraw its final dividend recommendation as a result of Covid-19, meaning the total dividend per share fell to only 1.7p from 5.7p.
Chair James Dickson said: "From the very outset of the pandemic, our goal has been to preserve cash to ensure both business continuity and to enable ongoing investment in the business, with the aim of being strongly positioned for the Covid-19 exit phase. Whilst these are still early days, we are encouraged that April's trading performance was well ahead of our revised forecasts, and that the measures we have taken to protect the business have been successful, giving us confidence that we are well positioned to exit from the Covid-19 phase with momentum to accelerate our growth plans."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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