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(Alliance News) - Tavistock Investment PLC shares rose on Monday following the release of strong interim results which saw the investment company swing to a pretax profit.
Shares in Tavistock up were 16% at 4.75 pence on Monday morning in London.
For the six months that ended September 30, Berkshire-based Tavistock swung to a pretax profit of GBP35.5 million from a loss of GBP416,000 in the same period a year before.
Revenue was up 27% to GBP17.0 million from GBP13.4 million in the same period the prior year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were down 15% to GBP1.1 million from GBP1.3 million in the same period of 2020. Tavistock said this was due to the one-off benefit of staff salary sacrifice and government furlough support during the first half of 2020.
Tavistock also cited for the lower Ebitda its sale of Tavistock Wealth Ltd to Titan Wealth Holdings Ltd back in August.
Tavistock said proceeds of the GBP20 million sale have allowed it to repay all its outstanding borrowings of GBP3.5 million and to declare an interim dividend.
The dividend will be paid at 0.05 pence per share, five-times higher than its maiden dividend of 0.01p in 2019.
Chief Executive Brian Raven said: "The strategic partnership with Titan and sale of Tavistock Wealth Ltd has transformed the shape of the business and its prospects. It has enabled the delivery of immediate enhancement in value to shareholders while providing the company with the firepower to accelerate the growth of the business through acquisitions, with some exciting prospective targets already being considered.
"In addition, our advisory business continues to perform strongly and is already on track to deliver revenues ahead of the entire group revenue in the prior year. We are in a strong position to continue developing a much larger and more profitable distribution and wealth management group, to deliver enhanced value to shareholders."
By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com
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