(Alliance News) - Fonix Mobile PLC on Tuesday celebrated "excellent progress" on its strategic priorities, as both pretax profit and revenue jumped in the first half of its financial year.

For the six months that ended December 31, the London-based mobile payment and messaging platform reported pretax profit of GBP7.4 million, up 28% from GBP5.8 million a year prior.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were GBP7.3 million, up 18% from GBP6.2 million.

Revenue came to GBP39.7 million, up 21% from GBP32.8 million a year previous.

According to Fonix, the positive financial result was driven by strong growth across both its mobile payments and mobile messaging service lines. These segments grew 14% and 53% respectively.

Mobile payments remain Fonix's primary commercial focus, it explained, while mobile messaging is continuing to grow on higher demand from existing customers.

Thanks to the strong half-year, the firm upped its payout to shareholders. It declared an interim dividend of 2.60 pence, up from 2.36p a year before.

Looking ahead, Fonix said the second half has started well, with performance in line with recently upgraded expectations. In January's trading update, the board said it was expecting adjusted Ebitda for the year ending June 30 "marginally ahead" of guidance, though it didn't specify what this was.

"We've made excellent progress on our strategic priorities in the period, once again nurturing significant growth from both established clients and newly o-nboarded customers alike," said Chief Executive Officer Rob Weisz.

"As we have begun to explore overseas markets we have identified territories with favourable market dynamics and exciting growth potential. At the same time we have continued to add significant additional depth to our product offering, expanding our competitive advantage and creating the founding dimensions for growth into the future."

Fonix Mobile shares were trading 5.9% higher at 256.80 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.

By Holly Beveridge, Alliance News reporter

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