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Advertising company M&C Saatchi booked an 88% rise in first-half profit owing to an asset sale, though its underlying earnings slumped and it downgraded its full-year guidance.
Pre-tax profit for the six months through June rose to £9.4m, up from a profit of £5.0m on-year.
Headline profit, which stripped out the asset sale gain, fell 67% to £3.4m, as net revenue edged up 0.7% to £214.2m but operating margins contracted.
The company held its interim dividend steady at 2.45p per share.
M&C Saatchi pinned the fall in adjusted profit on a larger number of loss-making entities, particularly start-ups, and the impact of the timing of revenues in 2019, which were expected to fall into the second half.
It said full-year operating profit and pre-tax profit would be 5%-to-10% below expectations, excluding the impact of exceptional items, including office refurbishment costs of £1.4m.
'Our results in the first half of 2019 have been impacted by the number of new businesses in the group as well as the weighting of revenues shifting towards the second half of the year,' chief executive David Kershaw said.
'Whilst this has had a short term impact on our results, we remain confident in and committed to our strategy of winning new business and investing in new, fast-growing businesses.'
'Looking to the second half, our pipeline of new business is strong across the network, and our newest businesses are performing well and expected to start making a meaningful contribution to the group.'