Marston's Posts Narrower H1 Loss, Lifts Interim Dividend

reported a narrower pretax loss for the 26 weeks ended April 4 and declared a 4.2 percent rise in its interim dividend. Marston's posted a pretax loss of 27.5 million pounds ($42.4 million), versus a year-ago loss of GBP54.8 million. Loss per shares shrank to 4.2 pence from 8.3 pence. Excluding items, the company's underlying pretax profit rose 2 percent to GBP29.6 million from GBP29 million Underlying profit per share rose to 4.1 pence from 4.0 pence. Its revenue rose to GBP400.5 million from GBP384.5 million, while underlying revenue climbed 2.7 percent to 384.5 million pounds from 374.3 million pounds. The company's board declared an interim dividend of 2.5 pence a share.