GB upbeat as half-year sales surge ahead

HALF-year sales and earnings at Chester-based identity checking firm GB Group have leapt on the back of organic growth and an acquisition.

In the six months to the end of September revenues grew by 28% to £23.2m while pre-tax profits jumped by 47% to £3.75m, after stripping out one-off costs. The bottom line pr[e-tax profit figure was marginally higher at £1.4m.

GB has two main divisions, DataAuthentication which offers an identity verification service aimed at tackling ID fraud, money laundering and under-age gambling, and DataSolutions, which provides clients with information on their customers.

In April it spent £20.5m on Australian fraud and credit risk software firm DecTech Solutions and since the end of the half-year period it bought Transactis from Shop Direct which specialises in pulling together transaction data and identifying consumer trends and fraud.

DecTech generated £2.6m of revenue and contributed £800,000 of adjusted operating profits to the Group. Organic growth contributed to 13% of the revenue increase.

Chief executive Richard Law said: “We have made strong progress against our strategy throughout the first half of the year and expect this positive momentum to continue through to the year end and beyond.

“With the added capabilities, markets and clients bought to the group by the acquisitions of DecTech and Transactis, we are confident of our continued growth and for the prospects of the group which we feel are very positive.”