LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rank Group Plc. (RNK.L) reported that its profit attributable to equity holders of the parent for the six months to 31 December 2018 declined to 18.7 million pounds or 4.8 pence per share from 25.1 million pounds or 6.4 pence per share in the prior year.
Profit before taxation was 22.8 million pounds, down from 32.8 million pounds in the prior year.
Adjusted earnings per share declined to 6.1 pence from 8.0 pence in the year-ago period.
Statutory revenue for the six-month period declined 1.7 percent to 348.2 million pounds from 354.2 million pounds last year.
The Group's digital business grew by 15.8 percent in the period driven by Mecca and YoBingo!. However, the period continued to be challenging for the Group's UK retail businesses with like-for-like revenue down 4.2 percent.
Rank Group noted that trading in the short four-week period to 27 January 2019 has been in line with its management's expectations.
The Group does not expect any material improvement to the challenging consumer environment over the short to medium term. However, driven by the transformation program, the company said that the Group's financial performance for fiscal 2018/19 is expected to be in line with the current consensus expectations, with about 10.0 million pounds of total cost savings scheduled for the second half of the year.
The company's board declared an interim dividend of 2.15 pence per share to be paid on 14 March 2019 to shareholders on the register at 15 February 2019.
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