9th Jun 2015 10:37
LONDON (Alliance News) - Carclo PLC Tuesday said it swung to a big loss in its last financial year as it booked an impairment related to its decision to exit from its CIT Technology operations, but its profits excluding the impairment rose as revenue in its two main businesses increased.
The manufacturer of fine tolerance parts for the medical, industrial, aerospace and luxury and supercar lighting markets reported a pretax loss of GBP24.5 million for the year to end-March, compared with a profit of GBP4.8 million a year earlier, as it booked GBP31.7 million in exceptional charges including a GBP25.4 million impairment in CIT Technology.
Carclo started a strategic review of the CIT Technology business last year, and later said it had decided to exit the business after licensing its fine line technology to UniPixel Inc. That would leave it focused on its technical plastics, LED technologies and precision engineering operations.
Excluding the exceptional charges, its pretax profit rose to GBP7.1 million, from GBP5.3 million, while operating profit rose to GBP7.8 million from GBP6.6 million. That was driven by a rise in revenue to GBP107.5 million from GBP97.3 million.
Revenue rose in its technical plastics and LED technologies businesses but fell in precision engineering, but operating profit before exceptional items rose in all three units.
"The group is very well placed to continue with its growth strategy. Exiting the CIT business enables us to focus our resources on developing the significant opportunities that we have identified and we believe that, through a combination of organic investment and highly focused acquisitions, we will be able to drive the group forward over the years to come," Chairman Michael Derbyshire said.
It increased its total dividend to 2.75 pence, from 2.65p, a move it said reflected its confidence in its future.
Carclo shares were down 1.4% at 148.10 pence Tuesday morning. The stock has risen 65% so far in 2015.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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