Photo-Me saw shares rise over 6 percent on Friday after releasing better than expected financial results for the second half of 2016.
The international photo company was boosted by strong growth in Europe and the Republic of Ireland, where a memorandum of Understanding was agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the Republic of Ireland concerning photobooth secure online passport applications.
Revenue rose 19.2 percent to £110.6 million, with pre-tax profit up 20.2 percent to £31 million. The company’s net cash also rose 7.4 percent to £68 million, benefitting from the sharp decline in the value of sterling against the euro and yen and the acquisition of Asda’s photo division.
John Lewis, Non-executive Chairman, said:
“Photo-Me has made excellent progress in the first half with strong growth in revenues and profits reflecting the success of our strategy of investing in new products, the acceleration in the growth of our laundry business and currency benefit.
“We are strongly positioned to be a leader in security based operations. During the first half we focused on technology upgrades to our photobooth estate in France that allow digitised photos and e-signatures for driving licenses to be securely uploaded. The expansion of our laundry business continues to drive our growth and the introduction of our smaller Revolution units are expected to help maintain that progress.”
Looking ahead, Lewis added:
“The Group’s performance for the first half was ahead of the Board expectations and the Board therefore now expects the Group’s profits will significantly exceed current market expectations for the financial period ending 30th April 2017. The Board continues to be optimistic about the Group’s future prospects.”
Looking to the future, Photo-Me remains focused on the rapid expansion of its laundry division in Europe.
Photo-Me International (LON:PHTM) is currently trading up 6.29 percent at 163.69 (1021GMT).