Property group LSL has posted increased revenue for the first six months of this year, but a drop in profits.
The group, which includes financial and surveying services as well as estate agent chains Your Move and Reeds Rains, achieved revenue of £103.4m in the six months to the end of June, up 2% on the same period last year.
The estate agency division reported increased revenue of 11%.
An operating loss for the first half of last year of £600,000 was turned into a £600,000 operating profit for the same period this year, but underlying profits fell from £13.4m to £11.8m, due to a £2.6m investment in the company’s strategy to increase its share of the estate agency market with new staff and a call centre.
The company said it had a cautious view of the market for the rest of 2011 given the continued shortage of available mortgage finance and the general economic uncertainty. It stressed that the market remains difficult, with the number of house sales at less than half historic norms.
Chairman Roger Matthews said: “Against the backdrop of an ongoing challenging housing market, we have continued to strengthen our market positions and drive new revenue streams in both estate agency and surveying.
“As a result, the board remains confident of delivering further progress in 2011, a confidence that is reflected in our decision to announce a 12% increase in the interim dividend payment to 2.8p per share.”
Comments
Great diverse company, 2 terrible brands, think what they could achieve with a quality name? Fair play to them. Buy failed business cheap, add T/O and growth the city wants and away they go.
Is a 10 - 13 % profit margin acceptable to most firms??
They called me. Said they had been given my name.
What a joke.
Perhaps this drop in profits is due to the extortionate fees they've been paying their headhunter to poach staff from other companies (as highlighted in a breaking news article in EAT about a week ago - but now mysteriously removed!).