By Robb M. Stewart
Cazoo Group Ltd.'s shares more than doubled Tuesday after the European online car retailer reported a jump in second-quarter revenue and it launched a review of its business in mainland Europe as it focuses on cash preservation and reaching profitability.
The company also named a new financial chief who will join later in the year.
In morning trading, the shares were changing hands at $1.21, after closing Monday at 48 cents, to narrow the year-to-date drop to about 80%.
Cazoo logged revenue of 333 million pounds ($408 million) for the latest quarter, up from GBP136 million a year earlier, as the number of vehicles sold more than doubled and its retail and wholesale operations notched strong growth.
Its loss for the first six months of the year widened to GBP243 million from GBP102 million, in part as cost of sales and expenses increased over last year.
Cazoo said that it has maintained momentum into the third quarter, with record retail unit sales and revenue in July, and it has growth its U.K. website inventory to record levels.
It said that as it continues to make progress on a planned business realignment, it is currently reviewing the business in mainland Europe with an aim of further reducing cash burn and ensuring Cazoo has a plan that reduces the requirement to raise any additional external funding.
Cazoo said it has named Paul Woolf as financial chief, succeeding Stephen Morana during the final quarter of this year. Mr. Woolf joins from Graphcore and previously acted as financial chief at U.K.-listed Mitie Group PLC, it said.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
