YouGov PLC (LON:YOU) blamed a 7% decline in first-half profits on one-off items and said trading in the second half was going well on the back of a strong sales pipeline.
Operating profit fell 7% to £10.5mln and statutory pre-tax profit by 22% to £7.4mln in the six months to 31 January, affected by FX headwinds, higher deferred payments for previous acquisitions and costs associated with the closure of its Kurdistan business.
Revenues were up 7% to £79mln, but the sales pipeline is weighted towards the second half of the financial year, the online market research and political polling group said.
Data products revenue increased 6% to £26.5mln and data services by 19% to £21.8m, driven by “strong demand for more tactical, fast turnaround projects”.
Custom research sales fell 11% to £30.1m, due to the Kurdistan closure.
The AIM-listed company said both data products and custom research have seen “positive sales momentum with larger, more strategic projects coming through towards the end of the 2020 calendar year and in early 2021”.
Net cash at the half year end was £27.5mln.
A new product development was YouGov Safe, “enabling users to securely generate value from their personal data”.
Management said current trading is in line with internal expectations for the full year, boosted by the second-half acquisition of Canadian sports research firm Charlton Insights and “significant” new contract wins with a major multinational media agency and a US-based game developer.
The shares were down 3% to 950p in early trading on Tuesday.