LONDON (Alliance News) - Starcom PLC shares dropped heavily in early trade on Tuesday after the company said its pretax loss widened in the first half, hit by the crisis in Ukraine and slow sales for its WatchLock arm.
As a result, Starcom said profit and revenue for the full year will be below market expectations.
The company was the second worst performer on the AIM All-Share in early trade on the back of the profit warning, down 2% to 7.02 pence.
The wireless tracking solutions provider said its pretax loss in the six months to June 30 widened to USD741,000 against USD89,000 a year earlier, as revenue in the period fell to USD2.9 million from USD3.5 million a year earlier.
The group's cost of sales was slightly lower in the period, down to USD1.4 million against USD1.5 million, but its general and administrative expenses rose to USD2.2 million from USD1.4 million.
The company said the slow start to the year was compounded by the loss of sales to Ukraine, which accounted for 20% of total sales in its 2013 financial year. In addition, the company was hit by slower-than-expected revenue from its WatchLock arm. The second generation of the WatchLock product is expected to come to market in 2015.
The company said that, though it expects to be profitable for the full year, profit and revenue figures are expected to be lower than market expectations for 2015.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Star Energy (STAR)