PayPoint takes hit on value of online and mobile units
LONDON (Reuters) - British firm PayPoint, whose terminals allow people to pay utility and other bills with cash in local shops, reported a sharp drop in half-year profits on Thursday after writing down the value of its separate mobile and online payment businesses which it is trying to sell.
The company put the units on the block in May to leave it to focus on its retail operations in Britain and Romania, and said on Thursday it remained confident it would sell them.
But the offers it had received were below expectations, resulting in the 18.2 million-pound ($27.5 million) write-off, which reduced the group's pretax profit for the six months to Sept. 30 to 3.2 million pounds from 22.5 million a year ago.
Chief Executive Dominic Taylor said it had been prudent to write down all of the book value of the online business, but he added it could still sell for more than the worst forecast.
"We've had a lot of interest ... we are well down the line on both businesses," he said. "We remain confident we are going to sell them during the second half."
Analysts at broker Liberum said the impairment charge was "disappointing", and the shares were trading at six-month lows on Thursday.
They were down nearly 7 percent at 930.5 pence at 1307 GMT.
($1 = 0.6630 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
