25th Sep 2015 06:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Judges Scientific PLC Friday expressed confidence in meeting market expectations for its full year, as it reported a swing to a pretax loss in its first half due to an amortisation charge related to its acquisition of Armfield Ltd in January.
For the half year to end-June the scientific instruments company reported a swing to a pretax loss of GBP1.5 million from a profit of GBP1.9 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP24.9 million from GBP21.9 million was offset by a step up in operating costs, and an amortisation charge of GBP4.8 million related to the acquisition of Armfield.
Revenue was bolstered by a five month contribution from Armfield, and on an organic basis revenue fell 9.6% as a strong performance in China was offset by weakness in the US, Germany, France and Japan. It noted that order intake was weak throughout the first quarter of 2015, although its second quarter was strong.
On an adjusted basis, stripping out amortisation, share based payments and acquisition related costs amongst others, pretax profit fell to GBP3.3 million from GBP4.1 million.
Judges Scientific said its second half has begun positive, aided by a strong mid-year order book. Its order intake in the third quarter is well ahead of the previous year, although less buoyant than in its second quarter.
"These mid-year figures reflect the weak order intake experienced throughout much of 2014 and the first quarter of this year. I am pleased to report, however, that order intake in the last six months has shown a significant improvement which will bear fruit in the second half. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Armfield illustrates Judges' continuing ability to execute its growth strategy, utilising the group's cash generation. As a consequence the board remains confident in the ability of the Group to meet market expectations for the full year," said Chairman Alex Hambro in a statement.
It proposed an interim dividend of 8.1 pence, up from 7.3 pence in the previous year.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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