23rd Jul 2019 12:25
(Alliance News) - Aerospace and defence engineer Cohort PLC hiked its dividend Tuesday after annual profit and revenue both surged, helped by growth from all its major units and recent acquisitions.
For the year ended April, pretax profit almost halved to GBP5.7 million from GBP10.2 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 9.7% to GBP121.2 million from GBP110.5 million the year before.
Profit performance was hurt by a sharp rise in administrative costs to GBP37.1 million from GBP29.4 million the year prior. This was primarily due to amortisation of intangible assets, which jumped to GBP9.5 million from GBP5.3 million the year before.
A further GBP1.0 million in one-off costs were booked in relation to the acquisition of defence firm Chess Technologies Ltd. In December 2018, Cohort completed its up to GBP33 million purchase of an 82% stake in Chess.
Cohort proposed a 6.25 pence per share final dividend, up 11% from 5.65p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend jumped 11% to 9.10p from 8.20p the year before.
"MASS, MCL and SEA all posted increases in profits and the result also benefitted from the acquisition of Chess in December 2018, partially offset by a weaker performance at EID", Cohort Chair Nick Prest said.
"Our record order intake of nearly GBP190 million and an all time high closing order book of GBP191 million gives us a strong base for the coming financial year," Prest added. "We also have a good pipeline of order prospects."
The year prior, the order intake at Cohort stood at GBP77 million which took the order book at closed at GBP104 million.
"Overall, we expect the group to continue to make progress in the coming year and beyond, taking into consideration the budgetary risks of our main UK customer, the timing of exports and the strong opening order book", Prest concluded.
In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Cohort announced wholly-owned electronic warfare support subsidiary MASS Consultants Ltd had won a nine-year supply services contract worth a total of GBP4.8 million from an unnamed "export customer."
The contract will see MASS provides its electronic warfare operation support service to protect combat aircraft from missile threats.
"This is another important win for MASS that once again demonstrates its market leading capability in the EWOS domain," Cohort Chief Executive Officer Andy Thomis said.
"MASS's ongoing ability to provide customers with true operational sovereignty, enabling them to operate with confidence in the real operational environment, is a unique source of MASS's competitive advantage," Thomis added. "Alongside other recent wins, this contract enhances the visibility of future group revenue."
Shares in Cohort were 0.6% lower at 437.52 pence in London on Tuesday.
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