Gateley Holdings PLC on Wednesday picked a former video game executive as its next board chair, while reporting a strong rise in half-year profit but a ‘cautious’ short-term outlook.

Birmingham, England-based Gateley provides legal and other professional services. It said David Wilton will join its board as a non-executive director on February 1, before replacing Nigel Payne as chair in September.

Wilton currently is a non-executive director of veterinary services firm CVS Group PLC. Until November, he was chair of Frontier Developments PLC, a video game developer and publisher. As an executive, he was chief financial officer of Sumo Group PLC, a video game developer that was bought by Tencent Holdings Ltd at the start of 2022.

Payne has led Gateley’s board since its London listing in 2015.

Gateley also on Wednesday said pretax profit rose by 32% to £7.4 million in the six months that ended October 31, from £6.3 million a year before, on a 7.6% increase in revenue to £82.0 million from £76.1 million.

Gateley held its interim dividend at 3.3 pence.

Looking ahead to all of financial 2024, Gateley said it was cautious on the short-term outlook, noting the financial third quarter to date has been ‘more subdued’ than the second quarter. Despite its strong first half, the company expects the full year to be only broadly in line with market consensus.

‘Our H2 24 outlook reflects our cautious view on the market conditions we are currently experiencing,’ commented Chief Executive Officer Rod Waldie.

Gateley shares were down 10% to 142.00 pence midday Wednesday. The stock is down 25% over the past 12 months.

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