Ingenta PLC on Wednesday maintained its interim dividend despite a profit dive, as it expects project work to increase in the second half of the year.

The Oxford, England-based provider of software and services to the publishing industry said pretax profit fell to £615,000 in the first half of 2024 from £1.5 million a year prior.

Revenue declined 12% to £5.1 million from £5.7 million.

Cost of sales increased 2.8% to £2.7 million from £2.6 million. This was driven by investments made to the company’s professional services team aimed at streamlining future consulting services work, Ingenta said.

Chair Martyn Rose said: ‘Although significant new business has been won during the year, and further contract wins are expected, the group has experienced a slowdown in implementation of new project revenues over the summer months. As in previous years, the group’s implementation of new projects on recently released software platforms is offset by a progressive multi-year reduction in revenues from legacy services. The recent delays mean that new project work has not fully offset these revenue reductions and therefore revenues and profits in the first half of the year are lower than the previous year.’

Ingenta shares fell 18% to 96.75 pence each on Wednesday afternoon in London.

The company confirmed an interim dividend of 1.5 pence per share, unchanged from a year ago.

Chief Executive Officer Scott Winner said: ‘Our products continue to evolve and innovate, leveraging our strong customer relationships. Our content distribution solution is now capable of delivering online magazine content in addition to the books and journals which have historically been the Group’s strength, thereby increasing our addressable market. The first magazine customer was launched earlier in the year and continues to get positive feedback as well as generating word-of-mouth referrals upon which the team is capitalising.’

Looking ahead, Chief Financial Officer Jon Sheffield said: ‘Evidence from the summer months suggests that the time taken to secure new business is extending, while the progressive multi-year reduction in revenues from customers on legacy platforms is continuing. The experience to date is that new contracts are taking longer to finalise as customers explore many options before committing to larger projects which in turn delays revenue recognition. However, the group expects project work to increase in the second half of the year and has already secured significant new business in that respect. The board therefore remains optimistic about the remainder of the year.’

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