LONDON (Alliance News) - ULS Technology PLC Tuesday said its pretax profit fell in the last financial year as revenue experienced a slight fall and it recorded additional costs linked to its initial public offering, but said new products and the legal services market will provide growth going forward.
The web-based services provider for brokers, estate agents and other professionals reported a GBP1.5 million pretax profit in the year ended March 31, falling from a GBP2.5 million profit a year earlier as revenue experienced a slight fall to GBP16.1 million from GBP16.3 million.
Profit mainly fell due to a GBP1.4 million exceptional item related to the company's initial public offering, and because administrative expenses rose to GBP3.0 million from GBP2.8 million. Stripping out those IPO costs, pretax profit rose to GBP2.9 million from GBP2.3 million.
ULS said it will pay a final dividend for the year of 1.0 pence per share.
"Whilst the lack of supply in the housing market means that conditions remain difficult, we are seeing signs that our focus on attracting new customers, combined with the acquisition of Legal Eye, will deliver profitable revenue growth over the coming year," said Chief Executive Nigel Hoath.
"We have just successfully launched our estate agency comparator product estateagency4me.co.uk and look forward to developing this product over the coming months," he added.
Moving forward, the company said the housing market is expected to remain flat but it expects to increase its market share through new contract wins in its core conveyancing product whilst the legal services market is "ripe for disruption". ULS said it plans to "play a significant role" in the changes to the market.
ULS shares were down 4.4% to 55.00 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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