Focusing on digital product development paid off for Park Group (PKG) during the first half of the year. Customer billings increased by 7 per cent to £106m year on year, with cash balances rising to a record £229m by the beginning of November. Chief executive Chris Houghton says this will convert into revenue during the second half. However, the increased scale of the business meant operational losses increased to £2.2m, from £1.6m.
Growth in the corporate business outstripped the consumer business once again, with billings in the former increasing 8 per cent to £74m. In May, online employee rewards platform Evolve was expanded via the launch of Love2shop Worldwide. Since then 31 companies have signed up to use the service in countries including Italy, India and Australia. Most of these are multinationals that were already clients of the UK Love2shop platform.
At the consumer business, billings were up 6 per cent to £31m. The order book for Christmas items is 4 per cent ahead of the same time last year. In January a mobile app was launched, which has produced a growing volume of new business. It has been downloaded more than 46,000 times and more than £13m of orders were placed for Christmas 2018.
Analysts at house broker Arden Partners expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £13.2m during the year to March 2018, giving EPS of 5.6p (up from £12.4m and 5.3p in FY2017).
| PARK GROUP (PKG) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 87.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £162m | |
| TOUCH: | 86-87.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 90p | LOW: 62p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.4% | PE RATIO: | 17 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 3p* | NET CASH: | £7.8m | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2016 | 72.4 | -0.76 | -0.33 | 0.95 |
| 2017 | 74.7 | -1.57 | -0.69 | 1 |
| % change | +3 | - | - | +5 |
| Ex-div: | 01 Mar | |||
| Payment: | 06 Apr | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £4.8m, or 2.5p a share | ||||
