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Homewares retailer HomeServe said profit rose 2% thanks to acquisitions in its heating, ventilation and air conditioning business.
The retailer also said it had agreed to acquire a 79% stake in eLocal for $140m.
eLocal was a home experts business that connected consumers with local businesses. The acquisition of a majority stake would give HomeServe a profitable entry to the home experts market in North America.
For the six months ended 30 September 2019, pre-tax profit rose 2% to £19.7m and total revenue increased by 13% to £457.7m.
The membership and heating, ventilation and air conditioning businesses were performing at the top end of HomeServe's expectations, giving scope to increase net profit and loss investment in new markets and home experts in 2020 from £12m to 15m to around £19m, the company said.
The interim dividend rose 12% to 5.8p a share.
'Given the strong performance of Membership and HVAC, the only change to HomeServe's overall outlook for FY20 is the addition of $5m of adjusted operating profit from eLocal,' Homeserve said.
At 8:41am: (LON:HSV) Homeserve PLC share price was +60p at 1258p