Identity verification specialist GB Group has hailed the "excellent strategic progress" it made during the first half of its financial year despite its profits being wiped out.
The Chester-based company employs around 1,200 people and works with the likes of Volvo, HSBC, eBay, John Lewis, ASOS, Lego, Santander and IBM.
It recently hit the headlines after takeover talks with a Chicago-based private equity firm were revealed in September. They came to an end at the start of October, however.
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Newly-filed figures with the London Stock Exchange show it made a pre-tax loss of £24,000 for the six months to September 30, 2022, compared to a profit of £14.3m in the same period last year.
The fall was despite the group's revenue increasing from £109.1m to £133.8m.
Chief executive Chris Clark said: "Excellent strategic progress has been made across the group over the past six months as we maintain our relentless focus to deliver against our long-term growth strategy, bringing our market leading location, identity and fraud solutions together to address the ever-growing needs of customers in the digital world.
"Our fantastic people around the world are key to this success, and I would like to thank them for their efforts.
"Their continued hard work and dedication has underpinned GBG as it has evolved into one of the world's leading pure play identity software providers.
"The macro uncertainties have been well publicised, but with world class technology, a diversified blue chip customer base and our strong cash generative business model, the board remains confident in the long-term prospects of the business."
On its outlook, the group added: "The start to the second half of the financial year has been in line with our expectations despite macroeconomic pressures impacting some of our end markets.
"Year to date, cryptocurrency and internet-economy customers have seen the greatest slowdown, with customers in traditional financial services such as banking, pensions and insurance more stable.
"We note that the second half has so far seen cryptocurrency customer activity normalise at a similar run-rate to the second quarter and for the remainder of the year we expect these customers to account for around 2% of group revenue.
"Notwithstanding the tough comparator period driven by cryptocurrency customers, we expect to deliver mid-single digit pro forma constant currency revenue growth for the second half of the year, in-line with expectations.
"We also expect to continue to benefit from foreign currency translation tailwinds that increased our first half reported revenue by 7%. At prevailing currency rates, we would expect this tailwind for the second half growth rate to be around 6%.
"The group remains focused on prioritising activities that will drive growth. We have maintained our disciplined investment in the business to maintain our market leading position and capitalise on the significant potential in our markets.
"In the second half of the year, we expect revenue growth acceleration and cost control will together drive a stronger margin, in line with market expectations, and remain confident in the strength of the pipeline.
"The board remains highly confident in the long-term opportunity. We believe GBG's services are crucial for our customers to operate safely and efficiently in a digital world, underpinning the resilience of our business and outlook from an ever-increasing business presence online. We look forward to discussing the long-term growth opportunities."
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