Cloud-based software and communications business Synety Group on Friday reported its first full year of trading following the reverse take-over of Zenergy in September 2012.

The company said annual operating losses before non-recurring items climbed to £3m in the year through December 2013, up from £1.3m in 2012, on the back of increased investment.

Synety made improvements to its platform and infrastructure, which it said have delivered a "step change in capacity, scalability and robustness".

The group implemented enhancements to the CloudCall products, including the launch of CloudCall Contact Centre, which is attracting larger customers as it provides sophisticated call centre technology from any integrated customer relationship management platform.

Sales rose seven-fold to £547,000 from £76,000 a year earlier.

Period-end cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period came to £2.3m, down from £2.7m at the end of 2012, due mainly to an increase in operating cash outflows.



Shareholders of market research agency BrainJuicer are in for another windfall as the company unveiled its second special dividend for the year, along with a hike in its full-year payout, after profits more than doubled in 2013.

Results were mostly fuelled by its two main businesses in the UK and US, while all of its other operations generated higher revenues, with the exception of Germany.

The company, which paid a special dividend of 12p per share in October, representing £1.51m in cash, has said it will pay another special dividend of 12p due to its strong cash generation.

Meanwhile, a 3p final dividend, along with the 0.9p interim dividend, has lifted the full-year payout to 3.9p, up 26% year-on-year.

Pre-tax profit jumped by 135% in 2013 to £3.56m, as 17% growth in revenue to £24.46m was met with just a 7% increase in costs. The company said that its largest 10 clients by revenue grew by 61%.

"It's been emotional. 2012's flat result meant a miserable start to the year but the restored 17% revenue growth in 2013 was hugely uplifting to company spirits as well as financials," said Chief Executive John Kearon.

BrainJuicer, which has no debt, ended 2013 with cash of £6.19m, up from £3.76m the year before.

"Looking ahead, we are planning more of the same, and believe we have the platform from which to deliver," said Chief Financial Officer James Geddes.

"We have made a promising start to 2014, but as always, given our limited revenue visibility we cannot predict with any certainty how the year will unfold."



Veterinary services group CVS said this year's dividend will be at least as big as the previous one after each of its four divisions registered double-digit sales growth in the first half.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose 15.5% to £7.1m in the six months to December 31st on revenues that increased 18% to £68.8m.

Statutory pre-tax profit, which includes amortisation and exceptional costs, totalled £3.2m, up 8.1% year-on-year. However, basic earnings per share jumped by 24.3% to 4.6p.

The Practice Division, which operated from 255 veterinary surgeries at the half-year stage, up from 240 the year before, is CVS's largest division and delivered 16.5% growth in sales to £61.3m.

Revenues from the diagnostic services Laboratory Division rose 11.7% to £4.9m. The online dispensary, Animed Direct, grew sales by 76.5% to £3.7m, helped by the employment of a search engine optimisation specialist. Meanwhile, the Crematoria Division saw revenues rise 20% to £0.6m.

Chairman Richard Connell said that trading since the half year has been in line with the board's expectations: "The mild weather in January and February 2014 compared to the prior year has helped like-for-like sales since the half year end with the like-for-like growth percentage improving compared to the first half of the year."

CVS, which paid a dividend of 2p per share for the year ended June 30th, said it will continue to review its dividend policy but expects this year's final payout to "be at least equal value".

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