Christie Group PLC - London-based financial, inventory and systems services provider - Says revenue in the six months ended June 30 fell by 1.8% to GBP33.1 million from GBP33.7 million a year prior, due to a "decline in transactional volumes in our agency business", the company says. Swings to a pretax loss of GBP1.9 million from a GBP1.7 million profit the year before as employee benefit expenses rose by 8.2% to GBP25.2 million. Declares an interim dividend of 0.5 pence per share, down 60% from 1.25p in the first half of 2022. Looking ahead, says its full-year outcome will be "determined by the number of deals which can be brought to contractual exchange in the remaining four months of 2023."

Chief Executive Dan Prickett says the "undoubtedly disappointing [first half] performance" resulted from "changing economic conditions which have served to frustrate transactional activity."

Adds: "Nonetheless, we have seen encouraging performance so far this year in other parts of the group, and we are now free of pension deficit repair obligations and term loan repayments, with a positive cash balance. We anticipate more positive transactional activity levels resuming once the market has adjusted to changes in interest rates and inflation."

Current stock price: 104.00, down 5.5%

12-month change: down 12%

By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter

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