(Alliance News) - Baltic Classifieds Group PLC on Wednesday reported strong interim revenue growth, and it lifted its outlook for the rest of the year.

Baltic, an online classifieds portals provider in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, said revenue grew 20% to EUR35.8 million in the six months ended October 31 from EUR29.8 million a year prior.

The greatest success was seen across its automotive services offering, with the group reporting a revenue increase of 28%.

Baltic Classifieds said first-half pretax profit grew 33% year-on-year to EUR17.6 million from EUR13.2 million.

Customer numbers in auto and jobs reached record highs, up 5% and 7% year-on-year respectively, helped by the normalisation of consumer demand in the auto market to pre-Covid levels.

Baltic lifted its interim dividend by 25% to 1.0 cent per share from 0.8 cents.

The company is "confident in the outlook for the second half of the year," and upgraded revenue growth guidance for the full year to an 18% to 19% range. It had previously guided for 15% growth.

In financial 2023, it achieved revenue of EUR60.8 million.

Of the results, Chief Executive Officer Justinas Simkus stated: "The stars have aligned extremely well for all of our businesses as we have seen record numbers of advertisers, as well as an improved competitive position and increased yields across our entire portfolio."

Baltic Classifieds shares were up 2.9% at 213.49 pence each in London on Wednesday morning in London.

By Hugh Cameron, Alliance News reporter

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