LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Marketing agency System1 turned in a broadly flat set of results on Thursday as a result of significant investments into its new business line.
Revenues were flat at £26.90m, while gross profits declined 1% to £22.05m and pre-tax profits remained stable at £1.93m.

Underlying pre-tax profits increased 80% to £3.70m.

However, System1's "substantial" £3.03m investment in its new AdRatings business, which it expects to continue into 2019-20, offset much of the gains seen elsewhere.

Across the globe, gross profits grew 19% in Continental Europe, but in the Americas, it was down 6% year-on-year and was stable in the UK. Elsewhere, Asia Pacific, System1's smallest region, was down 21% as a result of the loss of a large client.

System1 proposed a final dividend of 6.4p per share for the year, taking its total payout for 2018-19 to 7.5p per share, the same as it was a year earlier.

Chief executive John Kearon said: "The previous year, our first as System1, was a painful one.

"This year's results may not be spectacular, but they were significant. Flat revenues, 7% growth in ad testing, a 23% increase in the number of clients and 5% growth in H2 revenues against H2 2018, leave us cautiously optimistic the changes are working."

As of 1025 BST, System1 shares were down 0.84% at 235p.

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