(Alliance News) - Alpha Financial Markets Consulting PLC on Thursday said profit fell in the first half of its financial year, despite improving revenue, as this was offset by rising cost of sales and administration expenses.
In the six months that ended September 30, the Paris-based asset and wealth management and insurance consultancy said pretax profit fell 24% to GBP10.8 million from GBP14.2 million a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, which uses alternative performance measures not defined under the requirements of IFRS accounting, pretax profit fell 14% to GBP18.4 million from GBP21.3 million.
This was despite revenue rising 7.4% to GBP115.6 million from GBP107.6 million, as this was offset by rising costs.
Cost of sales rose 11% to GBP76.3 million from GBP68.6 million, while administration expenses were up 16% to GBP26.4 million from GBP22.7 million.
Alpha Financial Markets opted to hold its interim dividend at 3.70p per share from a year earlier.
"The group's first half trading has been resilient. As communicated in June and outlined in our pre-close trading update, we have seen a lengthening sales cycle and increased competition as a result of overcapacity in the global consulting market. The current market remains challenging but is progressively rebalancing," said Chief Executive Officer Luc Baque.
"With our unique value proposition and unrivalled consulting team, we continue to see robust client demand and enter the second half of the year with a strong pipeline. We remain well positioned for future growth in the medium to long term, in line with our ambition to double the business again by 2028."
Alpha Financial Markets said it continues to expect to deliver full-year results in line with current market expectations.
Shares in Alpha Financial Markets were down 0.4% to 356.00p each in London on Thursday morning.
By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News senior reporter
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Alpha Financial Markets Consulting (AFM)