LONDON (Alliance News) - Vitesse Media PLC Thursday said its pretax loss has almost halved in the first half of its financial year, with its events division seeing improved revenue, as the company remains on schedule to launch its crowd-funding platform.
Vitesse, a business-to-business media company, reported pretax loss was GBP72,000 for the six months ending July 31, compared to a GBP137,000 loss in the first half of 2013.
Revenue was up 4% to GBP1.0 million in the first six months, with revenues from events up by 41%, mainly due to winning new contracts for managed events and the launch of SDX Symposium, a software-focused event and Tech Invest North, a technology investment event.
The company said the trading of its websites targeting small and medium-sized businesses "was disappointing" in the first-half.
Online revenue increased by more than 40%, "which is the first increase seen in this segment in four years", said Vitesse. The company's What Investment web site achieved a 76% increase in unique users, and Information Age, its technology title, saw revenue for its events double in the first-half of 2014 with a 40% reduction on overheads for the brand, it said.
Vitesse have reduced administrative costs in the first-half of 2014 to GBP761,000 from GBP858,000 in the comparable period in 2013.
Vitesse acquired Carduus Capital, an investment manager regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, for GBP10,000 from former director and current shareholder Derek Stewart and his partner Scott MacDonald in order to accelerate the regulatory approval of its crowd funding and peer-to-peer lending platform. The platform is aimed at leveraging its existing client and readership base and is running on schedule, as the company develops marketing strategies, it said.
The company also gained GBP60,000 of funding through loan stock from five shareholders to "accelerate the investment in the upgrading of technology platforms", it added.
"Despite certain challenges that remain ahead, the outlook for the group is positive for the year and the board expects year on year improvement once again," said Vitesse.
No dividend has been proposed for the six months ended July 31, it said.
Vitesse Media's shares were down 2.7% to 3.65 pence per share Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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