XLMedia has continued to trade strongly since the half year, it reported in a trading update on Tuesday, and now expects adjusted EBITDA for the year to 31 December to be “materially ahead” of expectations.

The AIM-traded company said it further expected profit before tax to be ahead of expectations, albeit not to the same degree as adjusted EBITDA, as a result of the effect of adverse currency exchange differences.

“Since the half year end we have continued to see strong organic growth across the group, particularly in the publishing division, which has led to us achieving better than expected direct margins in both segments,” the board explained in its statement.

“As well as the number of visitors to our websites increasing we have seen improved conversion rates and increased revenues from revenue share arrangements from users we referred to customers both this year and before.”

During the year, XLMedia completed several strategic acquisitions targeted at North America, including mobile performance marketing platform Clicksmob, and two financial services informational websites – Greedyrates.ca and Moneyunder30.com.

Integration of all acquisitions made during the year was progressing according to plan, the board said, and they were all performing at least in line with management expectations at the time of acquisition.

“We are particularly pleased to report that that Greedyrates, which we acquired in January, has exceeded our growth expectations.

“This is primarily a result of traffic to Greedyrates increasing as we continue to optimise the site for improved performance as well as investing in customer relations and sales.”

That, the board claimed, was a “strong endorsement” of the team’s technical know-how and marketing understandings.

“We have been very pleased with the acquisitions that we have made in 2017 and see North America as a major opportunity for the group to grow in various verticals, such as financial services, cyber security, mobile apps and, as markets increasingly regulate, online gambling,” the board said.

As a result, it said it remained confident in the continued performance of the business.