InterQuest Group Profits Boosted By Restructuring, Subsidiary Sale

LONDON (Alliance News) - InterQuest Group PLC saw rising profits and revenues in the half year ended June 30, boosted by a company restructure and the sale of subsidiary PayQuest.

The company posted a pretax profit of GBP1.2 million, up from GBP506,000 the previous year. Revenues increased slightly to GBP56.2 million up from GBP55.8 million. Net fee income increased 2.3% to GBP8.8 million from GBP8.3 million.

The company reorganised itself at the end of 2012, which it said had increased profitability and had started to deliver improved results in the first half. It sold its payroll services company PayQuest Group Limited for GBP315,000 as part of this restructuring, boosting profits.

The UK economy has seen improvements, which inspired confidence in the company, but InterQuest cautioned that challenges remained, noting that it was seeing reduced profit margins at some of its key accounts.

The IT recruitment company declared an interim dividend of 0.50, unchanged from the previous year. Its shares were trading up 4.8% at 83.50 pence Wednesday morning.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews

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