LONDON (Alliance News) - Illustrated book publisher The Quarto Group Inc on Thursday posted a wider interim pretax loss on the back of higher costs, as revenue increased marginally on the back of solid trading in its core business.
Quarto said its pretax loss in the half to the end of June was USD1.9 million, substantially wider than the USD644,000 loss it posted a year earlier on the back of higher administrative expenses and a swing to book exceptional costs rather than the one-off gain it made a year earlier.
Revenue in the half was up to USD66.2 million from USD65.6 million in the half, with revenue from its core publishing business rising by 6% on the back of acquisitions the company made in the second half of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015. Quarto said it made good progress in its children's publishing and foreign language sales in the half and said its prospects for the second half look solid.
The company said it would pay a flat interim dividend of 3.35 pence per share.
"I am pleased that we have continued to make good progress in the first half of 2015. This is a solid set of results that sees Quarto continuing to deliver its business plan. While our half-year results highlight our increased second-half weighting, we have good visibility in all our businesses. This gives us confidence that, for the third year running, we will have a strong second half, deliver growth for the full-year and further reduce our net debt," said Chief Executive Marcus Leaver.
Quarto shares were down 6.2% to 220.4 pence in early trade on Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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