Inspired PLC on Thursday said that it performed in line with management expectations in the first half, increasing its dividend despite seeing the impact of costs.

For the six months ended June 30, the Lancashire, England-based sustainability advisor reported pretax profit of £8.4 million, up substantially from £190,000 a year prior.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 3.5% to £10.9 million from £10.6 million. Adjusted pretax profit, however, fell 8.2% to £5.7 million from £6.2 million.

According to Inspired, adjusted pretax profit fell, as the increase in adjusted Ebitda was offset by an increase in finance costs, which rose to £2.6 million from £2.0 million the previous year.

Revenue improved by 0.9% to £45.0 million from £44.6 million.

Inspired declared an interim dividend of 1.45 pence, up 3.6% from 1.40p.

‘The group performed in line with management expectations in the first half of the financial year, driven by our strategy focused on cross-selling and upselling to existing customers and new client acquisition. We are better placed than ever as a full-service sustainability provider to support UK businesses to deliver net-zero and manage the estimated £138 billion costs of doing so between 2024 and 2050,’ said Chief Executive Officer Mark Dickinson.

‘Looking ahead, our pipeline across the four divisions is at a record level both in terms of size and number of projects. Having accelerated the integration of Ignite with the Inspired Optimisation business we have an opportunity to significantly increase the overall capacity of our delivery engine to reduce client concentration in FY25 and beyond.’

Shares in Inspired were trading 9.6% lower at 59.23 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.