Indications that the spurt of asset purchases at printing group Adare may be coming to an end comes with interim results this week showing a solid 39 per cent growth in pre-tax profits to £7.2 million in the six months top end October last. The group, in its intent to develop "key brands and niche areas of the business and to concentrate on organic growth " suggest that management believes that it is close to optimum size. Turnover during the period rose 38 per cent to £75.6 million, with part of the sales and profits attributable to income from acquisitions. However, while underlying profits rose 13.6 per cent, margins contracted to 10.3 per cent. To improve its margins Adare proposes to increasingly discriminate in favour of higher margin contracts.

With the fundamentals sound the good news for shareholders is a whopping 50 per cent increase in interim dividend to 4.68p a share, a payment supported by real profit growth which has elevated earnings per share to 35.36p