24th Jan 2019 10:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Industrial LED lighting maker LPA Group PLC hiked its full year dividend Thursday after its profit and revenue rose to new records, meanwhile order intake in the new year is performing strongly.
For the year ended September, pretax profit widened 5.7% to GBP2.0 million from GBP1.9 million the year prior. This is after revenue rose 24% to GBP28.0 million from GBP22.5 million the year before.
"The 2018 financial year proved exceptional, delivering a third successive year of record sales and profits, exceeding expectations," LPA Chair Peter Pollock said.
"As expected, order entry fell back relative to the very high levels achieved in 2017, reflecting the fluctuating demands of our markets, but were nevertheless very high in historical terms and the fifth highest on record," Pollock added.
Order entry for financial 2018 dropped to GBP20.2 million, from GBP26.1 million the year prior. At the end of the year, the order book stood at GBP13.8 million compared to GBP21.6 million the year before.
"As previously reported," Pollock added, "some major rail projects, including CrossRail, have been delayed and as a consequence the current year has started quietly, reflecting the lower current demand, which is expected to pick up substantially as the year progresses."
LPA hiked its final dividend 9.1% to 1.80 pence per share from 1.65p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 7.4% to 2.90p from 2.70p the year before.
"Happily, orders entered in the first quarter have been a new record at over GBP9 million, exceeding order entry for the first half of last year and under pinning progress in the medium term," Pollock continued. "After a slow start the year as a whole should be satisfactory."
Shares in LPA were 3.0% higher at 103.00 pence on Thursday.
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