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Aquila Services Group PLC on Monday said its profit declined slightly in the first half of its financial year due to staff investments, despite recording revenue growth.
The London-based management consultancy services provider reported a small drop in pretax profit to £302,000 in the six months to September 30, from £304,000 the year before.
Aquila Services said that it invested in staff recruitment in the period to ‘facilitate retention in a highly competitive marketplace’, with a number of senior-level consultants appointed. Combined with investing in its in-house and external training programmes, and graduate programme, this meant Aquila Services’s profit declined slightly.
This comes despite Aquila Services recording a 21% rise in revenue to £5.9 million from £4.9 million the year before, with its housing and sporting sectors growing faster than the education and international divisions.
In particular, the company’s Altair Consultancy & Advisory Services Ltd business experienced ‘significant growth’ in its technology, transformation and people business stream.
Aquila Services said this business has been successful in winning large-scale projects with housing associations ‘wishing to transform their businesses in a post-Covid world where different working practices have been developed’.
Aquila Services declared an interim dividend of 0.25 pence per share, up from 0.20p the prior year.
Looking ahead, Aquila Services said the focus on technology, transformation, building safety and asset management in the housing sector should provide a ‘significant’ return on its investment in the first half of the year.
Aquila Services shares were up 17% to 28.00 pence on Monday morning in London.
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