Adsure Services is fast becoming one of London’s dividend heroes. It’s certainly the Aquis Stock Exchange’s dividend king.

The internal audit and business assurance firm has hiked its interim dividend by a bumper 60% to 0.786p after gross profits surged 46% in the half-year period to 30th September.

Adsure Services has now paid or declared 2.266p in dividends since its IPO in 2023. This equates to around 11% of the company’s 20.5p current share price.

Higher profits were driven by a 19% jump in revenue and were achieved despite the company investing in ICT systems to support further growth. Revenue for the period increased to £5.1m from £4.3m in the same period a year prior.  

The significant revenue increase resulted from providing existing clients with additional complimentary services, representing delivery on one of Adsure’s strategic pillars to drive growth.

“The Board is pleased to announce a period of significant growth for the Group, leading to a profitable performance at the interim stage. This success is attributed to the dedication of our staff and the compelling offerings we provide to our customers,” said Kevin Limn, Chief Executive Officer of Adsure Services PLC.

Providing an insight into how investors can expect Adsure to perform in their second half, CEO Kevin Limn pointed to an encouraging start to the period with strength in two leading business areas.

“The second half has started positively, and we are seeing strong momentum across our Risk & Assurance and Risk & Advisory divisions,” Limn said.

Sustainable dividend growth

Adsure Services has everything you want from an income share. Cashflows are reliable and recurring. The board has shown a propensity to pass increases in profit directly onto shareholders. These factors are key to making a share a dividend hero.

Adsure enjoys the reliability of revenues from long-term government-funded organisations, including NHS trust, emergency services, local government and housing associations. Contracts are typically between two and five years, providing clear revenue visibility to support future revenue growth.

In addition to reliable shareholder returns through increasing dividends, Adsure Services offers investors the growth opportunity of cutting-edge technology being developed with the assistance of an Innovate UK grant.

Utilising its deep understanding of government-funded processes at the heart of our everyday lives, Adsure Services has identified opportunities to further improve efficiencies with the use of artificial intelligence. Adsure is developing a proprietary AI large language model designed to help create fresh revenue channels and provide further efficiencies for their clients.

The FTSE 100 looked set to close the week out with a very marginal high despite the disappointing news the UK economy shrank in news in October.

“The UK economy has failed to deliver an early Christmas present for Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, after it unexpectedly contracted 0.1% in October with construction and manufacturing both showing weakness, and services stagnating,” said Derren Nathan, head of equity research, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“On a brighter note, consumers are feeling more optimistic than they have for a while with the GfK consumer confidence index reaching a four-month high in December of minus 16. But with the major purchase index unmoved since last month, it may be more mince pies than new TVs that feel the benefit this Christmas. That reflects ongoing concerns around the prospects for growth in 2025. Confidence levels for the economy over the next 12 months remained unchanged at minus 26.”

Thankfully, the FTSE 100 does not reflect the UK’s soggy and slow economy, and stocks were little changed by the news of the economic decline that was attributed to the decisions made by the Labour government.

“The Budget continued to be blamed for the UK’s fragile economic performance as official figures showed GDP unexpectedly contracted in October, having also done so in September. This led to weakness in the pound, which can be helpful to the FTSE 100 given the relative boost it affords its dominant overseas earners,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

While US indices rocket to record highs, investors in London’s leading index must make do with a paltry gain of less than 1% on the week after the index rose 0.1% on Friday.

There was little conviction in the market moves on Friday with few FTSE 100 stocks moving over 1%.

Rentokil Initial was the top FTSE 100 gainer after announcing that an activist investor had increased their stake in the company. Rentokil shares were 3% higher at the time of writing.

Diageo was still feeling the positive impact of a broker upgrade with another 2% gain.

All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve and their interest rate decision next week.