Adventis sees pre-tax profits rise 75%

Adventis, the multimedia and marketing group, reported a 75% rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £1.8m boosted by a raft of acquisitions across healthcare, property and financial services.

The group, which unveiled its second set of full-year results since its admission to the Alternative Investments Market (AIM), reported a 62% rise in turnover to £35.5m over the period.

In May last year the company bought financial services media buyer Coltman Media and specialist healthcare agency Roundhouse Advertising. This was followed by the acquisition of property marketing agency M2 in July.

The company also secured £1m in funding from investment firms Morgan Stanley, UBS and Oceanwood Capital Management in November last year. Adventis chief executive Charles Phillpot says the company is looking to pursue further acquisitions particularly in the financial services market. He is in talks with two large companies regarding a potential acquisition that if successful would amount to the “equivalent of doubling the size of the company”.

Phillpot says the company would also look to build its digital operations, which currently account for around 10% of the overall group. However, he emphasised the importance of pursuing strategic acquisitions that would drive “profitable growth” in the business and criticised dominant search engine Google for failing to incentivise intermediaries.

†