Shares dropped in Malvern International PLC despite a narrowed interim loss and revenue growth, as the group’s underperforming Malaysia business is expected to remain that way for the rest of 2018.

Shares in the UK education firm fell 18% at 6.34 pence on Thursday.

For the six months to the end of June, pretax loss narrowed to GBP371,000 from GBP395,000 the year before, on revenue that grew substantially to GBP2.6 million from GBP1.7 million. Revenue growth was attributed to strong growth in the UK and Singapore, where in the former, revenue rose to GBP1.1 million from GBP770,000 due to an improved operating performance.