London, UK — Lookers, the London-listed motor-and-aftersales service group, has announced a decrease in pretax profit for the first half of the year, primarily driven by higher finance costs. The company reported a pretax profit of £40.4 million ($51.5 million) for the period ending June 30, compared to £49.9 million during the same period last year.
The decline in profit was primarily attributed to increased cost of sales and finance costs, as Lookers incurred an additional interest expense of £6.7 million. Despite this, the company witnessed promising growth, as its revenue rose to £2.42 billion from £2.24 billion. This positive performance was attributed to improved vehicle supply across all streams.
In line with last year, Lookers’ board has declared an interim dividend of 1 pence per share.
“We are pleased with our first-half performance, particularly with how our group has shown resilience in the face of rapidly increasing interest rates and ongoing cost pressures. Moving into the second half of 2023, we maintain a strong new vehicle order bank while remaining aware of prevailing macroeconomic pressures,” commented the company.
