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LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - British commercial vehicle hire company Northgate Plc posted a 19 percent rise in half-year profits on Wednesday, as more firms opted to lease commercial vehicles instead of owning them.
Pre-tax profits in the six months to October 31 rose to 22.4 million pounds ($41 million), Northgate said in a statement.
"We are reasonably confident going forward...as the trend toward outsourcing is still increasing here," Chief Executive Steve Smith told Reuters.
The firm, which owns and operates a fleet of almost 46,000 hire vans in Britain, said it was confident about the rest of its financial year and expected analysts to boost their estimates as a result of Wednesday's results.
"When they review forecasts for the year, we would expect them to upgrade slightly," Smith said.
Before Northgate reported results, analysts on average expected it to post pre-tax profits of around 40.5 million pounds ($74.80 million) for the full-year, he said.
In July, the company posted pre-tax profits of 36.6 million pounds for the year ended April 30.
Northgate's shares were down 0.2 percent at 554 pence at 1045 GMT.
Northgate also announced it was placing 3.04 million new shares at five pence per share, equal to about five percent of its share capital. It said it would use the proceeds to grow its business in Britain and Europe.