23rd Aug 2018 10:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mortice Ltd on Thursday said its profit declined in its most recently ended financial year, hurt by costs associated with an internal restructuring.
The security company's pretax profit for its year to the end of March fell to USD4.6 million from USD5.4 million a year earlier, despite revenue rising to USD221.3 million from USD181.0 million.
Profit suffered from a significant increase in Mortice's expenses, which totalled USD216.8 million in the first-half versus USD177.1 million the year before.
"The magnitude of the internal restructuring and the number of things that have needed to be addressed are far more significant than was earlier anticipated by the board," said Chairman Manjit Rajain.
Meanwhile, revenue was boosted by security services sales, which were up 20% to USD118 million and facilities management revenue, which rose 22% to USD101 million.
The company said its geographical revenue mix was the same as the prior year, with 64% of revenue coming from India, 31% from the UK, and 5% from Singapore.
Whilst revenue in the UK business grew by 23%, this was primarily due to an acquisition as like-for-like revenue dropped by 9%. In April last year, Mortice bought Manchester-based Elite Cleaning & Environmental Services Ltd for up to GBP4.5 million in cash and shares.
The company said, excluding the acquisition, revenue suffered from the higher cost of delivering contracts due to a tougher market environment and the struggles of some key counterparties in the last twelve months.
"I am pleased by the company's performance during the period, despite market challenges, particularly in the UK," said Rajain.
"We continue to create a global footprint and remain extremely excited by the growth prospects across all parts of the business," he added.
Shares in Mortice were untraded on Thursday at 22.00 pence each.