(Alliance News) - Belvoir Group PLC on Monday reported a 17% rise in interim profit and said it has decided to reinstate dividends following the strong financial performance.
The UK property franchise also said that the impact of Covid-19 on revenue was substantially mitigated by a reduction in operating expenses and GBP250,000 of government Covid-19 support.
For the six months to June 30, Belvoir reported pretax profit of GBP3.2 million, up 17% from GBP2.7 million a year ago, with 7% arising from the acquired Lovelle estate agency network and 10% from the underlying business.
In January, the company completed on the acquisition of the Lovelle network, which comprised six corporate-owned offices and eleven franchised offices, for GBP1.9 million in cash.
Revenue for the period increased 8% to GBP9.8 million from GBP9.0 million, of which 2% related to the underlying business and 6% to the acquired Lovelle network.
Belvoir declared an interim dividend of 3.4 pence per share, unchanged on last year. In addition, it has decided to pay 2.0p per share as partial compensation for the suspension of the final 2019 dividend, with a view to a further catch-up payment at the time of the final 2020 dividend, dependent on prevailing circumstances at that time.
Chief Executive Officer Dorian Gonsalves said: "Since our sector was 'unlocked' in May, both property sales and financial services activities have been at record-breaking levels for the group in terms of instructions, sales agreed and written mortgages. These are expected to convert to sales fees and banked mortgage income during the remainder of the year.
"Given results are on track in first half, a promising start to second half, and a strong pipeline of agreed property sales and written mortgage business, the board is confident of meeting management's pre-Covid expectations for the full year."
Shares in Belvoir were down 0.3% at 157.06 pence each in London on Monday morning.
By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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