27th Mar 2015 08:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Judges Scientific PLC on Friday said its pretax profit rose in 2014 as revenue increased, though the company said like-for-like sales slowed amid weak order intake and patchy demand in the scientific instrumentation sector.
Judges said its pretax profit rose to GBP2.4 million in the year, up from GBP1.2 million a year earlier. Stripping out exceptional costs, which were higher in 2013, pretax profit fell to GBP6.5 million in 2014 from GBP7.3 million in 2013, as a rise in revenue was wiped out by higher operating costs.
The company said revenue increased in the year to GBP40.6 million from GBP36.0 million, but like-for-like sales fell 3%. The like-for-like contraction was offset by the contribution from Scientifica Ltd, which the group acquired in June 2013.
Revenue for the group, excluding Scientifica, were down 5.3% in continental Europe, with a very weak performance in Germany offset by an improvement in France. US revenue dropped 8.8%, partially offset by a better result in Canada, but revenue also dropped heavily in China.
Judges said it will hike its final dividend to 14.7 pence per share, up from 13.4p, giving it a total dividend of 22p, up 10% year-on-year.
"The year just closed proved disappointing with weak order intake in most of our businesses progressively affecting all measures of performance," said Chairman Alex Hambro.
Shares in Judges were down 11% in early trade Friday to 1,495.00 pence, one of the worst performers in the AIM All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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