LONDON (ShareCast) - Personal Group Holdings reported a drop in first half profit as the employee benefits provider heavily invested in a restructuring programme.

Pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of June came to £3.7m, down from £4.9m, reflecting the costs of overhaul and higher claims.

The company has been investing in improving its technology and increasing its sales capacity, which led to higher overheads.

Revenue increased by 2.1% to £13.7m as the firm started to see the green shoots from its investment programme.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Scanlon said the expansion was starting to pay off but the company would not realise the full-benefits until next year.

“It will take 12 months to feed through because of the upfront costs at the beginning,” he said in an interview with Sharecast/ Digital Look.

Also set to provide a boost to organic growth over coming months is a contract signed with Network Rail in May. It marks one of the largest tender wins in the group’s history.

“The pipeline remains very strong,” Scanlon added.

“As the benefits of the investment programme and the Network Rail contract come on, we will be in full force in about a year.”

The group paid a dividend of 9.3p during the period, a 4.5% increase on the prior year.

Shares were unchanged at 440p at 14:52 on Monday.

RD

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