Homeserve confident of 'strong' year

24th Nov 2009 07:38

Home maintenance specialist Homeserve is on track for a year of "strong growth" as its core business did well at the half way stage and good levels of new policy sales and high levels of renewals continued into the second half. Profit before tax and exceptional items for the six months ended 30 September 2009 was £18.9m at the core policy membership businesses in the UK, Continental Europe and US, up from £16.5m a year ago. Including non-core activities, profit fell 42.5% to £11m.Core revenue was 25.3% better at £135m, but down 3.2% to £163.6m overall.The company offloaded part of its non-core emergency services division in September and closed the rest of the division down in October after the loss of a major client. "During the first six months of the financial year, we have achieved good levels of new policy sales and retention rates remain high as we continue to expand all of our membership divisions through the development of new products and affinity partnerships," said chairman Brian Whitty. "With our membership businesses continuing to perform well, a number of growth initiatives in the UK and international markets and a strong pipeline of business development opportunities, we remain confident of delivering another year of strong profits growth."The firm said it was confident about the full-year result as it continues to see good levels of new policy sales and high levels of renewals as the group enters its busiest time of the year. The interim dividend rises 10% to 11.5p a share.