City Briefs: Zoo Digital optimistic after losses narrow; Henry Boot completes strategic land deals

ZOO Digital has sounded a note of cautious optimism as it announced a jump in half-year revenues.

The Sheffield-based creative group, which is listed on AIM, saw sales increase by $2.2m to $6.9m, although pre-tax losses only narrowed slightly, by $135,000 to $638,000.

Stuart Green, chief executive of Zoo Digital, said: “The board is very pleased with the progress achieved in the period under review. The building momentum from the prior year continued into the first half of the year and we are pleased to have grown top line revenues by over 40%. Management focus on the period ahead will be on improving margins and profitability.

“We remain encouraged by the increasing interest we are receiving for our cloud-based solutions, and we believe the propositions we now offer, consisting of differentiated products and services, leave us well placed to continue to grow the business. While restructuring changes within one of the company’s major customers has caused some work projects to be delayed, the board is confident that this will resume back to normal levels in due course. 

“As ever, we can be impacted by the dynamics of the entertainment industry but we are confident that our broadening range of services is attractive to our increasingly diversified customer base and, as a result, we remain cautiously optimistic about the Group’s future prospects.”

Last month the company announced that one shareholder, Herald Investment Trust, had provided an £800,000 loan to support working capital.

:::

DEVELOPER Henry Boot has now completed deals for two strategic land sites which will put its 2014 trading result “materially ahead” of market expectations.

Last month the South Yorkshire firm announced it was in advanced negotiations on nine sites while it updated the market on improved trading conditions.

“After several years when developing investment property for an acceptable risk weighted return was very difficult, markets have begun to improve,” it told the markets.