Wilmington pre-tax profit plunges

17th Sep 2009 08:03

Professional information and training group Wilmington said annual pre-tax profit tumbled as the economic downturn hurt trading, particularly at its legal training businesses.Pre-tax profit fell to £2.85m in the year ended 30 June compared to £11.86m last year. Revenue for the year fell to £86.3m from £88.8m previously.David Summers, chairman commented, "The group has resilient and robust assets and the resources, ambition, determination and proven management to continue to deliver sustainable medium and longer term growth, both organically and through acquisition."Wilmington said it expects the current challenging economic conditions will continue for at least the first half of the new financial year. "Given the downturn experienced in the early part of 2009 the group anticipates that the financial performance for the first six months of the current year will be below the level achieved in the prior year, with like for like comparators becoming less difficult thereafter," the group added.Wilmington proposes maintaining a final dividend of 4.7p per share