LONDON (Alliance News) - ADVFN PLC Thursday said its pretax loss narrowed in its last financial year, helped by higher advertising sales amid an increase in subscribers, but said results were held back by the strengthening of sterling against the dollar.
In a statement, the owner of investment websites said it made a GBP555,000 pretax loss in the 12 months ended June 30, compared with a GBP776,000 pretax loss a year earlier. Revenue increased to GBP9.7 million from GBP8.1 million as it reported a rise in registered users to 3.0 million from 2.8 million, ahead of its 2.9 million target.
Administrative expenses rose to GBP9.2 million from GBP8.6 million. Average headcount increased to 43 from 37.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to GBP298,000 from GBP108,000, ahead of ADVFN's GBP200,000 target.
"These solid gains have been against a background of further investment, apparently depressed market activity as far as market participants are concerned, and a rampant pound which suppressed the results of our very strong US performance," Chief Executive Clem Chambers said in a statement.
"Our US business has continued to perform very satisfactorily with particularly strong growth in the winter and spring of 2014. The US market has been far and away the highlight of the year," Chambers added.
The CEO said ADVFN is on the lookout for acquisitions and joint ventures following its joint venture with Topstocks.com in Australia, which he said has begun to be a revenue-generator.
Nor does Chambers fear a market crash.
"It is a positive sign that while 2014 has not been a bull year for world markets, we have still been making good progress. It is of our opinion that if the market was to crash, ADVFN would do very well, as ultimately the thing traders hate most is inactivity in the market. Previous corrections and crashes have resulted in traffic increases for us, and this outcome would present an opportunity to showcase the site to a whole new generation," Chambers said.
ADVFN shares were Thursday quoted up 0.4% at 80.80 pence.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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ADVFN (AFN)