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Eckoh PLC on Tuesday said it was confident of progress in the year ahead as it proposed a higher dividend despite a profit decline. The London-based provider of secure payment and customer contact products said pretax profit declined 32% to £3.4 million in the financial year ended March 31, from £5.0 million a year prior. Revenue edged down 4.2% to £37.2 million from £38.8 million. Administrative expenses increased 6.0% to £27.8 million from £26.2 million, while cost of sales came in 19% lower at £6.2 million compared to £7.6 million. Chief Executive Officer Nik Philpot said: ‘This was in many ways a milestone year for Eckoh, with record levels of contracts won, a record level of new business secured in North America and a record level of client renewals. It was also the first year when all new contracts won were for cloud deployments, illustrating the pace at which our cloud transition is proceeding, and whilst this has tempered our headline revenue growth it continues to improve our revenue visibility and margin. It’s testament to the quality, performance and hard work of our team that this strategic progress has been made.’ Despite the fall in profit and revenue, Eckoh proposed a dividend of 0.82 pence per share, up 11% from 0.74p a year prior. Looking ahead, the company said it was confident of progress in the year ahead as it anticipated growth in the new financial year 2025. It noted it was ‘optimally positioned as market leader for an increased outsourcing trend driven by ongoing regulatory change.’ Eckoh added: ‘The business continues to benefit from the transition to a software as a service business model and cloud deployment with further operating efficiencies and profit margin improvements expected.’ Eckoh shares rose 2.7% to 37.98 pence each on Tuesday afternoon in London. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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