22nd May 2014 09:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Electrocomponents PLC Thursday said its pretax profit increased in its full year as expected due to strong revenue figures in Europe and North America, though its UK sales figures were disappointing.
The electronics and maintenance products company said its pretax profit increased 17% to GBP101.1 million for the twelve months ended March 31 from GBP86.7 million the previous year, as revenue increased 2.4% to GBP1.27 billion from GBP1.24 billion.
The company said revenue was bolstered by its International business, which accounts for around 70% of revenue, with 3.8% underlying sales growth to GBP898.8 million, driven by improvements in both Europe and North America.
Electrocomponents noted that its UK sales declined by 2% despite its planned strategy to improve UK sales by 1% to 2% during the period. It said sales trends improved in the second half but not by as much as it had expected leading to the disappointing results.
The news comes after the company announced in April that it expected to meet expectations for pretax profit, excluding reorganisation costs, as profit margins remained stable and operating costs were "tightly controlled." In its results Thursday, the company met its expected headline pretax profit figure of GBP101 million.
However some analysts were underwhelmed with the figures. Shore Capital said it now expects a downgrade for the company after its performance for the year was a little below its expectations, particularly in revenues, which were GBP15 million below its forecasts.
Electrocomponents said its full-year dividend will remain flat at 11.75 pence per share.
The company added that it has seen sales growth of 2% in the first seven weeks of the new financial year, with its International business growing by 4%. However it noted that its UK business continue to decline, down 3% during the period.
Electrocomponents shares were down 4.0% to 276.80, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 on Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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