LONDON (Alliance News) - Homeserve PLC said on Tuesday it remains confident in its prospects for the full-year despite interim profit dipping, as it separately announced its chief operating officer will depart at the end of 2018.
Chief Operating Officer Johnathan Ford will step down from his role at the end of his year, with his responsibilities shared between Chief Executive Richard Harpin, Chief Financial Officer David Bower, and Tom Rusin, global CEO, HomeServe Membership.
Chairman Barry Gibson said: "Following the successful reorganisation of the group along four global business lines and the subsequent reduction in Johnathan's responsibilities, he has decided to pursue other opportunities. We respect his decision and wish him well for the future."
Meanwhile, Chris Havemann will step down as a non-executive director at the end of his three year term on December 1.
Separately, the home emergency repairs firm said revenue for the half-year to September 30 rose 10% to GBP404.3 million, though pretax profit dipped 9% to GBP19.3 million. The company said the fall in profit "reflected straight-line amortisation charges" linked to acquisitions made last year.
Amortisation of acquisition intangibles in the half amounted to GBP12.5 million, compared to just GBP7.8 million a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, stripping out these costs, pretax profit rose 10% to GBP31.8 million amid the "seasonally quieter" first half.
The FTSE 250 constituent said it made an improved performance in the UK, with adjusted operating profit up 11% to GBP10.2 million and "continued strong growth" in North America, with adjusted operating profit up 28% to USD18.9 million.
CEO Harpin said: "We have delivered a strong first half and remain confident in our growth prospects for the full year. Business performance has been good in all our geographies and we have made progress on strategic initiatives in all four of our global business lines."
Homeserve raised its interim dividend by 11% to 5.2 pence versus the 4.7p paid out a year ago.
Shares in Homeserve were down 0.9% at 918.00 pence early Tuesday.