AssetCo pre-tax profits dip

First half pre-tax profits at international fire and rescue services firm AssetCo fell to £3.4m - down from £3.6m last time.

But the firm said its underlying revenues - excluding one-off events - grew 13% year-on-year and operating profits rose to £6.3m from £5.5m.

Revenues for the six months to the end of September rose to £17.1m from £16.5m last time.

The firm said that since the period end it had made significant progress over the previously announced strategy of selling non-core activities.

It adds: "This has resulted in closing the sale of the Treka Bus Limited business and reaching an advanced point of negotiations on the sale of the remainder of the assets.

"As a result a write down of £4.8m has been booked to the profit and loss for the period to reflect these negotiations.

"In addition, advanced discussions with a syndicate of banks are proceeding to release additional liquidity contained within the non-recourse asset financing to enable the group to restructure its balance sheet further."

CEO John Shannon said: "We are pleased with the progress made during the first half of FY11, and having completed large scale operational changes, we are now recognised as a fully outsourced fire and rescue services provider.

"Trading continues to be in line with the board's expectations and with the UAE contract coming fully on stream in the second half, we remain confident of a good overall performance for the full year."

Story provided by StockMarketWire.com