Mediazest swings to a small profit in first half

Visual media company Mediazest swung to a small profit in the first half of its trading year, driven by a growth in recurring revenues and improving margins.

Mediazest turned in a net profit of £90,000 for the six months ended 30 September - an improvement on the £149,000 loss recorded a year earlier as revenues rose 36% to £1.8m. Gross margins grew from 48% to 51% throughout the period.

It takes four decimal places, but earnings per share rose to 0.0001p per share, just right side of last year's loss of 0.01p per share.

Cash balances plummeted 88% to £12,000.

The AIM-listed outfit told investors on Monday that it had been having “considerable success” with overseas deployments during the period, with clients like Ted Baker, Nokia, Lululemon and Opel all enlisting the group's services outside of Britain during the six month period.

Mediazest said: “The group continues to target these opportunities, particularly during a time when the domestic UK retail market is under pressure, leading to uncertainty, which can result in the postponement of or delay in retail investment from some UK participants.”

“Notwithstanding, the group is developing, currently, several roll out / substantial deployment opportunities which would enable the company to show further progress both in the current and future reporting periods.”

As of 0930 BST, Mediazest shares had picked up 13.78% to 0.10p.