LONDON (Alliance News) - Shore Capital Group PLC posted a sharp rise in pretax profit for the first half on Wednesday, helped by strong trading across its business. The financial firm, which operates capital markets, principal finance and alternative asset management businesses, said its pretax profit in the half to the end of June was up to GBP9.5 million, nearly double the GBP5.0 million it made a year earlier. Revenue rose to GBP25.9 million from GBP22.5 million as Shore won a number of contracts and worked on some notable transactions in the half. The capital markets team advised on two initial public offerings and six secondary fundraisings, including the EUR92 million float by Applegreen PLC, the Irish petrol forecourt retailer, which it said was the biggest IPO fundraising on AIM this year. Applegreen's GBP218.8 million market capitalisation at its IPO price was second only to Verseon Corp's GBP302.5 million among AIM dÃ©butantes so far in 2015. In addition, Shore secured advisory contracts with Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, its first FTSE 100 client, and with Scottish drinks company AG Barr PLC. Shore will not pay an interim dividend, having paid 5.0 pence per share a year earlier, but does intend to return GBP10.0 million to shareholders from the sale of radio spectrum licences. "Despite the expected slowdown in the capital markets business ahead of the UK General Election, we have achieved strong results and made significant progress across the business, underlining the strength of our client-focused offer," said Howard Shore, the company's executive chairman. Shares in Shore were up 2.6% to 418.25 pence on Wednesday. By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Shore Capital - GBP218.8 million pre-tax profit £9.5m, up 2.6% Sam Unsted , despite a reported slowdown in the capital markets business ahead of the May. general election in UK