LONDON (Alliance News) - Alpha Financial Markets Consulting PLC on Wednesday reported a swing to an interim profit on increased revenue, leading to a bigger payout.
For the six months to September 30, Alpha FMC swung to a pretax profit of GBP6.7 million from a GBP1.1 million loss the year before.
The asset and wealth management consultancy increased its revenue by 36% in the same period to GBP39.0 million from GBP28.7 million the year before.
Alpha FMC hiked its interim dividend by 29% to 1.91 pence from the 1.48p paid the year before.
"The underlying industry trends of rising cost pressures, growth in assets under management, and regulatory and technology change remain firmly in place, driving demand for consulting services," said Euan Fraser, chief executive officer.
The company's largest division, its UK operations, reported revenue growth of 34% to GBP23.9 million from GBP17.8 million. Its US division increased revenue 32% to GBP5.0 million fron GBP3.8 million on the back of increasing its US consultants to 59 from 35.
Alpha FMC increased its number of consultants across the whole group by 28% to 352 from 274 the year before.
Fraser added: "With a good pipeline of work, we look forward to the second half of the financial year with continued confidence, and expect to deliver group performance for the full year slightly ahead of board expectations."
The consultancy firm posted pretax profit of GBP1.5 million for the 12 months to the end of March, on revenue of GBP66.0 million.
Shares in Alpha Financial Markets Consulting were up 3.2% at 216.21 pence each on Wednesday morning.
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting (AFM)