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Chime Communications, the firm behind the CompareTheMarket meerkat advertising campaign, today announced a 14% jump in pre-tax profits to £18.8 million.
Despite a brutal year for many rivals, the firm's chairman, Lord Bell, hailed “our best results ever” as operating revenues rose 10% to £123.1 million.
Chime, whose subsidiaries include PR firm Bell Pottinger and ad agency VCCP, thrived by increasing overseas revenue from 45% in 2008 to 57%.
Fears of a hung parliament have prompted companies to spend more money on political advice to represent themselves with a new government. Chime's public affairs division had a record first quarter.
Lord Bell, a Tory peer who advised Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher, said: “I lived through the last hung parliament. During the election campaign the stock market crashed and currency crashed and caused great uncertainty.”
He identified sports marketing as a key growth area, bringing in 20% of revenues from events such as the London 2012 Olympics and international rugby..
“Sport is becoming one of the staples of people's lives,” he said. “Markeeteers are using sports sponsorship to establish the brands.”
Chime increased the final dividend to 3.5p, making the total for the year 4.72p, up 10% on 2008. Shares, up 230% in the last year, today slipped 5p to 210p.
Analysts at Numis Securities, which advises Chime, described the results as “excellent” and raised its price target for the shares to 292p, saying they look “undervalued”.
