LONDON (Alliance News) - Long-term savings provider Hansard Global PLC Monday said its first-half business sales declined by almost a quarter after a large distributor stopped new business production.
Hansard Global was the second biggest loser on the FTSE All Share Monday morning, as its shares fell by 11% to 82.17 pence each.
In a statement, Hansard Global, which in early November warned its second-quarter results would drop, said new business at Hansard International fell by about 24% to GBP55.2 million in the first-half. New business margins fell to 7.5% from 10.0%.
But Chief Executive Gordon Marr also said Hansard expects second-half new business to be "significantly below" last year's figure, which he described as an "exceptionally strong comparative".
"The group's strong capital position will allow it to pay dividends in line with the guidance previously provided," Marr said in a statement.
"As announced, we have been undertaking a thorough review of our new business strategy in order to diversify new business flows and increase the scale of our business. We believe there are a number of significant growth opportunities available [...] which we will be announcing on March 4, following completion of this review," Marr added.
Meanwhile, its Hansard Europe division, which is closed to new business, still has GBP2.5 million in writs against it compared with GBP11.6 million last year.
"The plans approved by the Central Bank of Ireland to achieve an orderly run-off of the activities of Hansard Europe have been implemented," Hansard said in a statement.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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Hansard (HSD)