Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2005/07/27/egg_figures/

Egg soldiers on

End of

By Tim Richardson

Posted in On-Prem, 27th July 2005 10:07 GMT

Egg - the UK internet bank that tried to crack the French market - posted increased turnover and a profit for the first half of the year.

Operating income was up 5 per cent to £251m while the company overturned a £1.7m loss last year to rack up a pre-tax profit of £15m.

Almost all of that surplus came from Egg's UK operations, which saw revenues in the UK grow 5 per cent on the same period last year.

At the same time Egg - majority owned by the Pru - is managing to reduce overheads due in part to a "restructuring exercise" including the shuffling of a number of top execs.

This helped the company "re-focus on the core business and the needs of the UK consumer".

Last year Egg managed to flog its failing French business to Banque Accord for £96m in cash. However, the cost of bidding adieu to France does not come cheap, but execs said they expect it to be less that £113m.

Said chief exec Paul Gratton: "Overall the result for the first half was in line with our expectations and we remain confident about the remainder of the year."

By mid morning shares in Egg were up 2.25p at 112.p. ®

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