Premier Veterinary's first half loss nearly doubles

(ShareCast News) - Premier Veterinary Group's shares fell on Monday after the company almost doubled its first half pre-tax loss to £1.07m from £0.57m the previous year.The firm, which provides services to third party veterinary practices, attributed the wider loss to an increase in administrative expenses to £2.2m in the six months to end of March from £1.2m a year earlier.However, revenues rose to £1.4m from £1.1m as the number of pets on the company's preventive healthcare programme Pet Care Plan more than doubled to 117,000 from 57,100."Premier Veterinary is continuing to invest in the global expansion of its Pet Care Plan business with the objective of achieving significant and sustained growth for the foreseeable future," said chief executive Dominic Tonner.During the period, the group completed the sale of its remaining veterinary practices Zetland Limited, Thanet One Limited and The Veterinary Clinic (Bearwood) Limited to Independent Vetcare Limited for £4.1m.Premier Veterinary said it will use the proceeds of its disposal to fund the expansion of its Premier Vet Alliance business and to accelerate the roll-out of Pet Care Plan in multiple overseas territories.Shares dropped 8.66% to 129.25p at 1555 BST.