5 August 2014 – interim results
In the six months to 30 June, the group’s adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £6.7m from £2.8m in the same period last year on revenues which rose 4% on a constant currency basis. Adjusted earnings per share rose to 5.71p from 3.56p but there was no dividend. The first half performance has been encouraging as it reflects some of the benefits of last year’s restructuring and further progress can be expected going forward. Nevertheless, with the recovery at the group likely to take years rather than months, we believe that the shares look overvalued in the short-term as adjusted pre-tax profits for the current year of £15.4m for earnings per share of 13.3p put the shares on a prospective p/e ration for the current year of 24.2x. We therefore suggest TAKING PROFITS.