A bumper Cheltenham festival for Irish punters has dented dented profits at bookmaker Paddy Power.
The company
reported a dip in first-half pre tax profit today despite a 27 per cent leap in sales but said it was confident of fulfilling its full-year growth plans.
Paddy Power reported a pretax profit of €18.4 million and a slight fall in first-half earnings per share to 31.72 cents from 33.30 cents in the same period of 2004.
"Despite a run of racing results in favour of the punters ... we remain confident of meeting our expansion plans for the full year and the group is very well positioned for 2006 and beyond," chief executive John O'Reilly said in a statement.
Revenues at the group jumped to €704.1 million in the first six months of the year from €554.1 million last year.
The company had told shareholders in May that a large number of wins by Irish horses in April meant that, despite a 30-per cent rise in turnover in the 19 weeks to May 10th, half-year earnings should be close to those of 2004. This year's Cheltenham festival was a vintage one for Irish punters with Irish horses posting a record nine wins at the biggest race meeting of the year.
It said at the time that it was well-positioned for a strong second-half performance, however.
At yesterday's closing level of €15.60, shares in Paddy Power are just below an all-time high of €16.07 set earlier this month, having climbed about 50 per cent so far this year.