LONDON (Alliance News) - Driver Group PLC, an AIM-listed construction consultancy, on Tuesday said it had a "disappointing" opening six months to its financial year, scrapping its interim dividend as its pretax loss widened.
No interim dividend was declared, compared to the prior year's 0.6 pence payment, as Driver's pretax loss widened to GBP3.4 million in the six months ended March 31 from GBP2.1 million a year earlier.
A 32% increase in revenue to GBP27.9 million from GBP21.1 million was more than offset by higher costs. Administrative expenses, excluding the cost of share options, exceptional items and amortisation of intangible assets, increased by GBP2 million to GBP6.5 million when compared with the first half of 2015.
That included an additional bad debt provision of about GBP500,000, the addition of newly acquired Initiate, and increased business support demanded by the growth of the business over the second half of 2015.
"After a reasonable start to the year, revenues in December were poor, and although only 4% below plan at that stage resulted in a significant shortfall against planned profit," Non-Executive Chairman Steven Norris said in a statement.
"The board has now set itself the goal of building on our recent cost-reduction exercise to produce steady profitable performance for the foreseeable future based on the simple principles of control of cost and efficient cash collection against a background of further organic expansion in those markets where we see potential for growth," Norris said.
Shares in Driver were down 3.9% at 50.00 pence on Tuesday.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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Driver Grp (DRV)