LONDON (Alliance News) - Retail stockbroker Share PLC on Wednesday reported higher pretax profit for the first half thanks to a one-off gain, as revenue dipped but the company said trading was in line with its expectations in a tough market.
The company, which runs The Share Centre stockbroking house, said its pretax profit in the half to the end of June was GBP190,000, compared to a GBP142,000 profit a year prior. The profit benefited from one-off gains made on the company's sale of shares in London Stock Exchange Group PLC.
Before that one-off gain, the company made an operating loss of GBP668,000 in the first half, compared to GBP83,000 a year before.
Revenue fell to GBP7.2 million from GBP7.4 million, hit by a subdued trading backdrop for the firm ahead of the UK's EU referendum in June. The firm said it managed to win market share, increased to 9.77% from 8.98% a year earlier at the end of June, and said assets under administration grew to GBP3.40 billion from GBP2.80 billion.
Share said it expects the trading backdrop will remain challenging in the near term but remains confident on striking new partnership which will boost its prospects.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, Share named the company it signed a heads of term agreement with in April as Computershare, the UK share registrar.
Under the agreement between the two, on which no financial details were disclosed, The Share Centre will take over the provision of certificated dealing and corporate nominee dealing services under the Computershare brand.
Share said it anticipates the partnership will launch in 2017 and will have a materially positive impact on its revenue and profit thereafter.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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