YouGov profits plummet to £363,000

LONDON - YouGov's pre-tax profits have slumped from 拢3m to 拢363,000 for the six months to January 31 after the group's costs grew more than its revenues.

The company had already flagged up a profits warning at the beginning of February, causing its share price to fall by around half.

Its results this morning revealed its revenues grew 20% year on year to £22.6m while operating costs grew 42% to £16.1m.

Much of the revenue growth was due to the weaker level of sterling compared to the revenue YouGov earns through international currencies.

In local currency terms UK revenues grew by 5%, the USA by 30%, Germany by 10%, Scandinavia by 4% while the Middle East dropped by 14%.

Nadhim Zahawi, chief executive, said: "As we have previously indicated, trading conditions became more challenging towards the end of the first half due to the economic climate, and this, coupled with an expanded cost base, resulted in a disappointing performance."

The company is cutting back its activities to reduce costs but said it would not cut key development areas such as its syndicated global product offerings (led by BrandIndex), its online services in Germany and its UK custom research business.

Since its close on Friday at 36p, the company's share price is up 4.17% to 37.5p.