Results round-up

AIM-listed Taliesin Property Fund, which focuses on the Berlin residential market, reported a big jump in profit for the year to the end of December.

Pre-tax profit rose to €44.7m from €17.4m in 2014 and the company’s portfolio valuation as at 31 December was €262.5m compared with €212.1m the previous year.

Taliesin’s adjusted net asset value per share rose to €31.44 from €22.00 at the end of December 2014 and total operating revenue edged up to €14.4m from €13.9m.

Chairman Nigel Le Quesne said: “The initial foray into the Berlin residential market was predicated very much on the value proposition and a catalyst for change being improving demographics leading to a shortage of supply and ultimately higher prices."

FairFX widened its full year pre-tax loss to £3.4m from £2.8m the previous year as the multi-currency payments service boosted its investments in operations and technology.

The group said the reported loss reflected an increase in marketing spend, a rise in headcount and higher charges for share options granted to incentivise management and staff.

Gross profit in 2015 came to £5m, up from £3.8m in 2014, driven by higher margins on currency transactions, less transaction costs and other direct costs.

Revenue jumped 35.7% to £7.4m as the group added 103,338 new retail customers to the business.

Chief executive Ian Strafford-Taylor said revenue was bolstered following the company’s “strategic focus on the increasing retail card customers”.The firm added 75,039 retail card customers during the period.

“Maintaining our strategy of investment in marketing and technology has yielded discernable improvements in customer conversion rates and increased customer spending,” he said.