(Alliance News) - Shares in Auction Technology Group PLC rose on Tuesday after the company said it had kicked off the year "in line with expectations".

Shares in Auction Technology were up 10% at 504.06 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.

The London-based online auction operator said that the year had started "in line with expectations", with total revenue of USD43.9 million for the three months ended December 31, up 11% from a year prior.

Auction Technology attributed this to "strong growth in value-added services", which offset a continued downturn in gross merchandise value. Revenue from the company's art and antiquities segment "grew strongly" on both an organic and total basis, and benefitted from Auction Technology's February acquisition of EstateSales.NET, an online platform for estate sales in the US.

Organic growth was also driven by wider adoption of the company's atgShip and atgPay integrated services. In November, Auction Technology said that the latter had been adopted by the LiveAuctioneers and Proxibid auctioning platforms.

The company said that trading is in line with its 2024 outlook, which reflects an anticipated improvement in performance through the stabilisation of industrial and commercial asset prices alongside contributions from its value added services revenue. Organic revenue is expected to grow between 5% and 8% from GBP135.2 million earned in 2023. The company also expects to maintain a 46% margin for adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Auction Technology will publish its interim results on May 16.

By Hugh Cameron, Alliance News reporter

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