Cabcharge Australia Limited (CAB) reported a half year net profit of $29.7 million. The result is up 1.9% on the previous half but down 7.9% on the previous corresponding half.

CAB said the level of turnover in the core payments business reflected the difficult business environment in the last 12 months and subsequent weaker demand for taxis.

However, the company noted that there are some initial signs of recovery and encouraging evidence strategies for growing the non cash Taxi payments market are starting to bear fruit, especially in light of concerns around EFTPOS fraud and card skimming.

The company said that in the last couple of months the number of Cabcharge Account cards on issue has grown by 11,000 as people move to more secure systems.

CAB said the result also demonstrates the ongoing importance of its diversification strategy, with the net profit from our Associate businesses increasing from $5.7m to $6.9m, up 20%.

The company said its balance sheet has remained strong with conservatively valued tradeable assets and gearing of 30.4% which is up from 28.1% and largely attributable to the Kefford acquisition.

For 1H10, bad debts continued to represent less than 0.1% of turnover.

The company announced a fully franked interim dividend of 17 cents with a record date of 31 March 2010 and payment date of 29 April 2010.

At 1042 AEDT, Cabcharge Australia shares were down 3c to $5.89.