24th Sep 2014 07:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Scientific instruments company Judges Scientific PLC saw its shares slide Wednesday, as its first-half results were greatly inflated by its Scientifica Ltd business, while trading continues to prove challenging for its existing business.
Judges Scientific shares were quoted down 16% at 1,297.00 pence Wednesday, making it one of the biggest fallers on AIM.
The company posted pretax profit of GBP1.9 million for the six months ended June 30, up from GBP777,000 a year earlier, as revenue rose 43% to GBP21.9 million from GBP15.4 million.
In July, Judges Scientific said trading in the first half "proved challenging" and it expected its first half performance to improve on a year earlier largely due to the inclusion of Scientifica Ltd, which it acquired in June 2013.
Chairman Alex Hambro reiterated this Wednesday and said progress at the mid-year had been driven by Scientifica's contribution with only "modest" organic growth.
"The business climate within the instrumentation sector remains challenging but your group's ability to pursue its strategic objectives is undiminished," Hambro said in a statement.
Judges Scientific said the businesses which were owned by the group on January 1, 2013 achieved organic growth of 3.2%, with weak performances in China and the US, each down 15%. However this was counterbalanced by 10% growth in all other territories.
West Sussex-based Judges Scientific said organic order intake during the first-half decreased 4.8% compared with a year earlier. The company also said total order intake, including Scientifica, was 11% below the level required to meet the group's sales budget without consuming its order book.
Additionally, the group said the second quarter showed a moderate but insufficient improvement compared to the first.
The order book at the period-end represented 7.8 weeks of sales, compared to 10.6 weeks a year earlier.
Going forward, Judges Scientific said its trouble looks set to continue with trading at the start of the second half proving difficult still, while the weekly order intake in the third quarter broadly mirrored the activity seen in the first half.
Despite its woes, the company increased its interim dividend to 7.3 pence from 6.6 pence a year earlier.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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