19th Nov 2018 13:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - 600 Group PLC on Monday said its profit shrank considerably in the first half of its financial year due to higher expenses and the profitable disposal of its ProPhotonix stake a year before.
However, 600 restored its an interim dividend, declaring a payout of 0.25 pence per share, having declared no interim dividend in recent years.
For the six months ended September 29, the engineering firm posted a pretax profit of USD975,000. This is down almost two thirds from a USD2.7 million profit in the year-ago period.
In August 2017, 600 sold its entire 26% stake in LED systems maker ProPhotonix and recorded a GBP1.3 million profit. No such disposal was made in 2018.
Net operating expenses increased to USD9.8 million from USD9.4 million and special items in operating expenses increased to USD995,000 from USD398,000 which further hurt profit.
Revenue increased somewhat in the half year to USD32.8 million from GBP32.2 million the prior year.
Looking ahead, 600 is expecting to see a post-tax surplus of between USD4 million and USD5 million from the buy-out of its USD270 million in pension scheme liabilities.
Once policies have been issued to all members, a process which is expected to take several months, the pension buy-out will be complete, and 600 will receive the one-off surplus payment, which is expected to provide "improved financial flexibility".
600 Executive Chairman Paul Dupee said: "We are pursuing a strategy to build a global industrials business."
"In the period we made further progress in de-risking the group, both operationally and financially, as we create a more flexible platform from which to leverage the strength of the group's brands and grow the business into increasingly diversified niche markets worldwide," Dupee added.
Shares in 600 were down 0.9% at 17.34p on Monday.
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