Paragon Entertainment suffers £2m first-half loss

(Sharecast News) - Paragon Entertainment swung to a first-half loss as the attractions design and fit-out business suffered project delays caused by slowing business and uncertainty in the UK and the Middle East. The AIM-listed company posted a £2m pre-tax loss for the six months to the end of June compared with a £438,000 profit a year earlier.Paragon works with museums, heritage centres, theme parks, retailers and other sites to design and fit spaces for exhibitions and other attractions including the Rolling Stones Exhibitionism show at the Saatchi gallery and Motiongate theme park in Dubai. The company warned in April that business was bad because of cost overruns and slower trading and set about cutting costs.Revenue halved to £4m in the first half as a business partner walked away from a contract that would have led to two UK attractions. A general downturn in the UK and uncertainty in the Middle East caused big delays to many projects, the company said.Chief executive John Dobson said: "The first half of 2018 has proven to be very difficult indeed ... Our order book has recovered, however, and is now strong, despite our poor first half performance and we aim to reduce these losses in the second half of 2018."Annual turnover will be £13m and the company will post a pre-tax loss for the year of £0.85m, Paragon said. The company's net debt almost doubled to £1.02m from £0.54m a year earlier. HSBC has extended its banking facility to £1.2m from £0.8m until July 2019.Paragon shares, which have more than halved in the past year, fell 13% to 1.65p at 08:11 BST.