9th Jun 2015 08:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - Dewhurst PLC Tuesday reported a higher pretax profit for the first half of its financial year as a drop in operating costs offset lower revenue, but it cautioned that its UK operations will continue to struggle and take some of the shine from its growing overseas sales.
The supplier of components to the lift, keypad and rail industries reported a pretax profit of GBP2.2 million for the six months to end-March, up from GBP2.1 million a year earlier, even though revenue declined to GBP22.8 million, from GBP23.0 million.
It said that after a positive start to the financial year, UK sales fell back in the second quarter, particularly in the lift sector. It said the drop could have been due to the uncertainty caused by the General Election. It added that the fall in UK sales was almost completely offset by growth in North America, Asia and Australia, although the weaker Australian and Canadian dollars reduced revenue by about GBP0.2 million over the six months.
"The UK Government has indicated that constraints on public spending will increase further and this is likely to impact our public sector sales. In our overseas markets the short term outlook is reasonably positive, suggesting that current trends are likely to continue," it said.
"Consequently we expect our markets in the UK to remain weaker, whilst our overseas markets should remain buoyant, at least for the second half of the year. However a further fall in the Australian and Canadian currencies will have some negative impact on the profitability of our operations in those countries and their contribution to group performance," it added.
Dewhurst said it will pay an interim dividend of 3.00 pence, up from 2.80p last year.
Its shares were down 1.3% at 580.00 pence Tuesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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