LIT warns of worse to come

LIT Holdings, the financial services group, warned yesterday that results for its seasonally weak second half 'may well be worse' than the pounds 600,000 loss it suffered in the same period last year.

LIT consists of a futures clearing operation in the US and Johnson Fry, the Business Expansion Scheme specialist, in the UK. The group expects no improvement in the markets of either.

Pre-tax profits for the first half, up from pounds 1.9m to pounds 2.3m, were held back by lower US interest rates, which cost LIT more than pounds 1m.

A flood in Chicago disrupted options trading in April and caused higher operating costs. Profits were also hit by lower volumes and margins on the Chicago options exchange.

LIT America continued to reduce its costs, and also cut bank debt by dollars 4.5m to dollars 21m.

There is again no dividend