(Alliance News) - Kainos Group PLC shares fell on Monday after its first-half earnings growth was overshadowed by a continued "post-pandemic decline" in healthcare revenue.

Shares in Kainos plummeted 20% to 990.26 pence each in London on Monday morning.

The Belfast-headquartered firm provides digital services to the public sector, healthcare market and commercial customers. In addition, it is a partner of enterprise software provider Workday Inc.

Kainos said revenue in the six months to September 30 rose 7.5% to GBP193.2 million from GBP179.8 million the previous year. Pretax profit rose 12% to GBP30.9 million from GBP27.5 million.

Kainos said: "Our key business areas, Workday Services, Workday Products and public sector within Digital Services, together 81% of revenue, continue to perform strongly, even when measured against a strong comparative period.

"Offsetting this growth, our healthcare revenues continued their post-pandemic decline and we observed some reductions in project scope for some commercial sector customers within Digital Services."

Kainos lifted its interim dividend to 8.2p per share from 7.8p.

Looking ahead, Kainos commented: "Notwithstanding the global economic uncertainty that exists, we believe that in the near-term, our key business areas, Workday Products, Workday Services and public sector-focused digital services will continue to deliver growth. The efficiency and cost reduction that the shift to digitisation can generate is significant and continues to attract funding within organisations.

Kainos added that it remains "well-placed to deliver further growth" in the medium-term future.

By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor

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