YouGov Plc., an online market research company, released its first half results today. The company posted a sharp decline of 41% in its first half adjusted pretax profit.

YouGov said that the decline was mainly attributable to the poor show in the Middle East. However, the company is confident for the second half of the fiscal and expects improved profits for the full year.

In the first six month of the fiscal ended January 31, YouGov reported an adjusted pretax profit of £1.4 million, decreasing by 41% compared to the same period last year.

YouGov said that the first half results came in line with the expectations of the company as the market conditions were very tough last year.

The revenue in the first half was reported of £21.29 million, decreasing by 5.6% while it was reported of £22.57 million in the same period last year. The company said that the decreased revenue was mainly attributable to the poor performance in the Middle East and Scandinavia.

YouGov said that the company had performed well in UK and US in the first six months of the year.

However, the company said that it expects a better performance in the second half of the fiscal.

"The group has a good new business pipeline and we are starting to see contributions from new revenue generating initiatives," said Stephan Shakespeare, chief executive of YouGov.