Collins Stewart trebles profits

Collins Stewart trebles profits
afx
Interim results boosted by Tullett acquisition; dividend hiked by 11%

Collins Stewart Tullett PLC, the financial services group, saw interim profits almost treble as it hiked its dividend by 11 pct, saying the results were boosted by its acquisition of Tullett Liberty in March.

Commenting on the results, Keith Hamill, Chairman said: 'The Tullett acquisition has transformed our Group. In particular, we have been successful in the goal of diversifying the sources of revenues and the Group has strong businesses that are performing well.

'The first half results are very encouraging, and current trading and the outlook reflect those strengths.'

The company added a number of other investment opportunities in the inter-dealer broker market have been identified and it intends to explore these further in the coming months.

The comments came as it posted a pretax profit for the six months ended June 30 2003, of 29.0 mln stg against 11.9 mln stg.

Turnover was 196.1 mln against 50.0 mln, with Tullett Liberty contributing 139.3 mln of the increase.

Operating profit before goodwill amortisation was 35.1 mln against 15.4 mln, 16.9 mln of which was generated by Tullett Liberty.

Basic earnings oer share was 9.30 pence, up 55 pct, and the interim dividend was 2.50 pence, up 11 pct to 2.25 pence.