22nd Jan 2015 07:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Oxford Instruments PLC Thursday issued a profit warning as its orders were hit by Russian sanctions, it saw weaker trading in its Industrial Analysis business, and recovery it had forecast for the Japanese market has not yet occurred.
The technology tools and systems provider now expects to post a pretax profit adjusted for acquisition and related costs of around GBP35 million for the year to end-March, compared to an adjusted pretax profit of GBP47.1 million a year before.
At the time of its half-year results in November the company had previously warned it expected a full-year performance at the lower end of market expectations.
Oxford Instruments said Thursday that significant orders both taken in the year and forecast to be take in its fourth quarter are for delivery to Russia. However, the recent tightening of trade sanctions, particularly the cancelling of certain export licences, means it can no longer expect to convert these orders into sales.
The company now assumes no sales can be made to Russia for the remainder of this year, and also assumes no sales to Russia next year.
Oxford Instruments said its taking action to reduce its costs to counteract these issues, which may results in the closure of some sites and the reduction of its headcount. It is aiming to achieve a cost saving of GBP6 million in its next financial year, resulting in a one-off exceptional cost of GBP5 million to be taken in the current year.
"Whilst it is not possible to predict when the situation in Russia will recover, order intake in Japan is improving. We expect to see the group grow next year and beyond as we execute on our nanotechnology strategy," the company said in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Oxford Instruments