(Alliance News) - Character Group PLC on Thursday reported falls in profit and revenue in the first half of its financial year, saying trading conditions remained "challenging across all the group's markets", but predicted a stronger performance in the next six months.
The Surrey, England-based toy, games and gifts manufacturer said its pretax profit dropped to just GBP201,000 in the financial half year ended February 28, from GBP6.5 million year-on-year.
Character Group also said revenue decreased by 36% to GBP57.9 million from GBP90.9 million.
Character Group declared an interim dividend of 8.0 pence per share, up from 7.0p per share year-on-year. The group said the rise was not supported by earnings cover but reflected its confidence that revenue and profit would recover in the second half year.
Character Group said it was confident in its prospects for the rest of the financial year ending August 31 and expects results to be "in line with market expectations". It anticipates that several "exciting new introductions" will boost profit over the next six months.
Character Group said: "The board predicted at the start of the year that the group's trading performance would be very much one of two halves. Whilst the conditions remain challenging, the board has a strong belief in the current product line up.
"The success of Heroes of Goo Jit Zu continues and is supported by other lines...In addition, the scheduled release of the new "Turtles" movie in August 2023 bodes well for the launch this summer of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of products that we are distributing in the UK and Ireland."
Shares in Character Group were down 1.7% at 346.00p in London on Thursday morning.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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Character (CCT)