Norman Broadbent's strong trading continues in H2

Professional services firm Norman Broadbent said on Friday that the progress made by the group in the first six months of 2019 had continued into the second half of the year.

Norman Broadbent told investors the underlying growth in revenues and improvements in operating results had seen the company return to profitability for 2019 as a whole.

Revenues increased 22% to £11.5m, while net fee income grew 15% to £7.6m.

The AIM-listed firm said a turnaround and transformation of this scale was "pleasing", particularly when many in the industry were referencing lower than anticipated UK trading and significant disruption in the second half due to political and Brexit uncertainty.

Chief executive Mike Brennan said: "The continued growth in revenue and our return to full-year profitability after several years of losses is an extremely important milestone for Norman Broadbent.

"As we move forward into 2020 these results further evidence that our strategy of building a more diversified, innovative and relevant business is working."

As of 1015 GMT, Norman Broadbent shares had climbed 8.57% to 8.55p.