Motivcom signals confidence with divi hike

Employee retention and company events specialist Motivcom signalled confidence for the full year with a big hike in its interim dividend, despite a decline in revenues and profits.

Timing differences in major contracts and other phasing issues meant that revenue in the first half of 2012 retreated to £49.24m from £52.60m the year before. The Olympic Games had some impact on those phasing issues, and the group remains confident of meeting the market's full year expectations.

Headline profit before tax decreased by 13% to £1.32m from £1.51m, which was slightly better than house broker Numis Securities had been expecting.

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Reported profit before tax, which includes one-off items, tumbled 30% to £0.90m from £1.28m at the half-way point of 2011.

"We are still expecting modest growth year-on-year, which is no change from the last time we spoke to you," Group Financial Director Sue Hocken told Sharecast.

In general, but particularly on the sales promotion and events organisation side, the group is holding on to its customers, but those customers are spending less. The shortfall is being made up by new contract wins, including some big names - Barclays, Lloyds Banking, the Post Office and BG Group.

"In our Events business, we are seeing employers shaving back a bit, both in terms of scale and numbers attending," revealed John Sylvester, Executive Director of Motivation and Incentive Services.

"As for the Meetings business, we've looked into this and found out that activity more or less tracks the movements of the Footsie. We were hoping it would be slightly in advance ..." Sylvester quipped.

"The group has worked hard to continue developing new products in certain areas of the business, as well as securing new client wins during the period," said Colin Lloyd, Chairman of Motivcom.

"The board is confident that the group's approach is maintaining its leading position in the market, and this confidence is demonstrated by the dividend increase of 30%," Lloyd added.

Talking of which ... the interim dividend has been bumped up to 1.5p from 1.15p last year. The group's final dividend is normally twice the interim dividend, Hocken told Sharecast, so that suggests a full-year dividend of 4.5p, which would put the shares on a yield of around 5%.

"We like to think that we offer the private investor the chance to invest in a resilient business that offers a good dividend," Hocken concluded.

JH