LONDON (Alliance News) - AIM-listed SafeCharge International Group Ltd, which provides payment services to online merchants, on Thursday lifted its dividend as it reported a 39% increase in pretax profit in 2015, and said it had an "encouraging start" to 2016.
Pretax profit rose to USD22.7 million in 2015, from USD16.3 million in 2014, as revenue grew by 30% to USD99.8 million from USD76.9 million and operating costs increased 33% to USD26.7 million. SafeCharge raised its total dividend for 2015 to 11.30 US cents from 8.16 cents.
Safecharge said its core payments processing business enjoyed "strong growth" compared to 2014, with "stable" gross profit margins and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 27% to USD31.4 million. The total value of transactions processed rose to USD6.9 billion in 2015 from USD5.7 billion in 2014.
"The year of 2015 was another period of strong financial performance and continued growth. We have continued to innovate, develop and deliver our payment products and technologies, enabling us to deepen our relationships and win new business with large scale customers. With continued strong momentum and an excellent pipeline of new business, we look forward to the rest of the year with confidence and optimism," Chief Executive Officer David Avgi said.
Shares in SafeCharge were up 1.6% at 262.75 pence on Thursday morning.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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