RWS Holdings PLC on Wednesday reported a mixed performance across the company’s four divisions during the first half of its financial year.

The Chalfont St Peter, England-based company transforms content through translation, localisation, and artificial intelligence-enabled technology, blended with human expertise.

RWS shares were up 16% to 193.80 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

Pretax profit fell 40% to £17.3 million in the six months that ended March 31 from £28.7 million a year previous, as revenue declined 4.4% to £350.3 million from £366.3 million.

Basic earnings per share declined 44% year-on-year to 3.00p from 5.40p, but RWS raised its interim dividend to 2.45 pence per share, up 2.1% from 2.40p.

Chief Executive Officer Ian El-Mokadem commented: ‘Language Services and IP Services, have returned to growth, our growth levers are delivering incremental revenues and our AI-centred solutions are playing an increasingly important role both for our clients and in respect of our internal efficiency.’

However, the company is yet to see a recovery within the Regulated Industries division, and elsewhere in the business, Content Technology sales were slower than expected.

‘Our financial strength has allowed us to continue investing in sales and marketing effectiveness and our transformation programmes, which will underpin future growth, efficiency and margin development,’ said El-Mokadem.

Looking ahead, despite economic challenges and pressure in some of the company’s end markets, management expects to see stronger performance in the second half of the year on the back of new business wins and a recovery in higher-margin parts of the business, RWS said.

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