Moonpig Group PLC on Wednesday said interim profit was cut in half as expenses ballooned.

The online greeting card and gifting company said that, in the six months to October 31, pretax profit fell to £9.1 million from £18.7 million a year prior.

Revenue stayed almost flat at £142.8 million, compared to £142.6 million. However, selling & administrative costs widened by 34% to £63.0 million from £47.0 million. Cost of sales decreased by 9.9% to £65.6 million from £72.8 million.

Moonpig shares fell 17% to 125.50 pence each on Wednesday morning in London. Moonpig listed in London in February of 2021 at 350p per share.

The company’s policy is to not pay dividends.

Looking ahead, Moonpig expects financial year 2023 revenue to grow 5.2% to £320 million from £304.3 million a year ago.

The company said it expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the financial year ending April 30 to remain unchanged from financial 2022’s £74.9 million, despite seeing ‘progressively more challenging’ trading conditions through October and November. That is 19% below financial 2021’s adjusted Ebitda of £92.1 million.

‘As the clear online leader in greetings cards, Moonpig Group is positioned to benefit as the market continues the long-term structural shift to online. Our resilient business model offers a powerful and unique combination of leading market positions, strong customer retention, high profitability and robust cash generation, giving us flexibility to manage through the economic cycle. As a result, our expectations for profit for the current financial year remain unchanged,’ said Chief Executive Officer Nickyl Raithatha.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.