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GB Group PLC on Tuesday said it returned to profit in the first half of its financial year, citing a strong performance in its Identity and Location segments and progress on operational efficiency. The Chester, England-based software company specialising in fraud prevention and identity verification swung to a pretax profit of £5.6 million for the six months to September 30, compared to a £57.3 million loss a year earlier, as revenue rose 3.4% to £136.9 million from £132.4 million. In the prior year, it had suffered a £54.7 million impairment of goodwill, which was not repeated this time around. Progress in the half-year was driven by its Identity and Location segments, which saw revenue increase 6.0% to £80.3 million from £75.8 million, and 8.6% to £39.5 million from £36.4 million, respectively. This offset a 9.2% drop in Fraud revenue to £17.1 million from £18.8 million due to the timing of licence renewals. GB Group attributed its ‘good half-year results’ to cost-saving and simplification initiatives, alongside efforts to streamline its commercial processes. Basic earnings per share improved to 0.6 pence in the fist-half, recovering from a loss of 21.8p in the prior year. GB Group also reduced net debt to £71.9 million from £104.8 million. GB Group reiterated its outlook for financial 2025, saying that trading since the half-year end has been in line with expectations. The company forecasts mid-single-digit revenue growth on a constant currency basis. Revenue in financial 2024 totalled £277.3 million. Additionally, operational efficiency improvements are projected to drive high single-digit growth in adjusted operating profit. Chief Executive Officer Dev Dhiman said: ‘We are retaining customers and doing more with them, and our new customer acquisition continues to be strong. Combined with the continued benefit of our group-wide cost and simplification initiatives executed in the prior year, we have delivered a good first half outcome.’ Shares in GB Group were up 5.5% at 360.20 pence in London on Tuesday afternoon. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights reserved.
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