Mercia Technolgies swings to H1 pretax profit

(ShareCast News) - Investment group Mercia Technologies has swung to a first-half pre-tax profit thanks to a marked improvement in revenue and fair-value gains on investments."Thus far, over £30m of the IPO proceeds have been invested to strengthen our direct investment portfolio," said chief executive Mark Payton.AIM-quoted Mercia's H1 revenue was £2.9m, from £654,000. It booked £2.8m in fair-value gains on investments, from a rise of £244,000 a year earlier.Net assets totalled £81.3m, from £80.2m.At about 11:43 GMT, shares in Mercia were up 3.21% to 48.25p.