Watchstone Group reports narrower first-half loss

Watchstone Group, the insurance technology firm formerly known as Quindell, reported a narrower loss for the first half as revenues grew.

In the six months to the end of June, the pre-tax loss narrowed to £8.2m from £32.3m in the same period a year ago, as underlying revenues rose to £31.9m from £28.8m.

Chief executive Indro Mukerjee said: “We continue to manage issues of the past with determination and we are working with clarity to develop and grow our businesses. We continue to resolve legacy corporate and legal matters and in June, we finally received Court approval in Delaware of the settlement of litigation relating to our subsidiary, Navseeker, Inc. (which trades as Evogi in the US).

“Our focus remains on the simultaneous aims of moving the group into profit and creating the platform to achieve the best possible value and performance from our businesses. We have continued to reduce losses ahead of plan and we are now undoubtedly a leaner, more focused and more efficient organisation. Current trading remains in line with expectations.”

The company, which relaunched under its new name in December, has been striving to disassociate itself from its scandalous past, after the Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into the firm when it said in August last year that the £107m pre-tax profit reported in 2013 had been misstated and the group had actually experienced a £64m loss.

In the first half of this year, Watchstone continued its strategy of divesting of businesses that are more suited to ownership outside of the group. In January it exited its property services interests and in March it disposed of Quintica Holdings. Both businesses were loss making.

The company said on Friday that further disposals may occur over time if this is the right path to take to create shareholder value.

At 1432 BST, the shares were up 0.5% to 223p.