Financial services group, Miller Fisher, has reversed into losses and cut its interim dividend. A pre-tax loss of £1.5 million sterling was incurred in the six months ended June 20th 2000, contrasting with a pre-tax profit of £2.4 million in the first half of 1999.

Shareholders were alerted to bad tidings when the company said it had a "mixed" start earlier this year but the out-turn is worse than expected. The shares have plunged from 89.25p last January to 19.50p yesterday.

The latest results show a virtual standstill in sales at £29.6 million. It incurred an operating loss of £80,000 and had to contend with a doubling of interest payments and a rise in exceptional expenses from £0.2 million to £0.6 million.

There was a loss per share before exceptional expenses of 0.37p compared with earnings of 1.29p. The interim dividend is being cut from 0.30p per share to 0.10p per share and the payment will have to come out of reserves.