9th Jun 2014 10:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Latchways PLC raised its total dividend for the year to end-March despite seeing pretax profit decline, as it expects to return to growth in the coming year, saying Monday it is encouraged by its current prospects despite challenging market conditions.
The safety harness manufacturer proposed a total dividend of 39.60 pence, up from 36.00 pence in the previous year.
Latchways posted a pretax profit of GBP6.8 million, down from GBP10.9 million as revenue declined to GBP38.5 million from GBP42.4 million.
Revenue was hit by a weak performance in the UK, hampered by the continued slowdown in construction expenditure and the absence of large project from Airbus SAS. As a result, UK product revenues dropped 30%.
European revenues dropped 8%, hit by the timing of business for its Wingrip product and wind energy projects.
Revenues rose 60% in North America, driven by strong growth for Wingrip and its Horizontal product lines. As a result, the company has set up a hub in Houston to continue building on its successes in the US.
In the rest of the world revenues dropped to GBP1.7 million from GBP3.6 million, hit by declining revenues from the company's Vertical product line, despite all of its other product lines seeing growth.
In its installation business, Safety Services, revenues declined 2% due a lack of commercial construction activity.
The company said the year had been "challenging" as construction markets remained weak and large projects were delayed. However, it said that it believes "these setbacks" are temporary and continued to invest in its business.
Latchways said that the improving UK economy, alongside improvement in some European economics, provided confidence for recovery in the commercial construction market.
"The challenges of the past year do not diminish the long-term opportunities for the Latchways business," the company said in a statement. "Fall protection as an industry is a growing international market, and we need to invest in sales and technical resources to ensure that we retain our position as an industry leader."
Shares in Latchways were trading down 1.3% at 1,125.11 pence.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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