26th Jan 2015 08:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in filtration and environmental technology company Porvair PLC rose on Monday morning after the company beat its expectations for the financial year and said it has snapped up a set of new contracts.
Porvair shares were up 4.4% to 302.688 pence, the best performer in the FTSE All-Share, after the group said pretax profit for the year to November 30 came in ahead of its expectations at GBP8.4 million, up 10% against the GBP7.6 million posted last year.
The company hiked its dividend on the strong results, with its final dividend up to 2.0 pence per share from 1.8 pence last year. Its full-year dividend is up 10% to 3.2 pence from 2.9 pence.
Revenue for the company rose 23% to GBP104 million from GBP84.3 million in 2013, on the back of a jump in microfiltration revenue in the year. Microfiltration revenue rose 33% to GBP73.9 million from GBP55.8 million last year, as large contracts revenue increased to GBP19.5 million from only GBP6 million a year earlier.
Revenue from its metals filtration business rose 6% to GBP30.1 million from GBP28.5 million, as the group won market share in the US and China.
Porvair said its order book going into 2015 is robust and said it plans to increase its capital investment in order to expand its business in the coming year.
In a separate statement on Monday, the group said it has also secured spares orders with three existing gasification customers in the US, India and Korea. The deals are worth a total of USD5.5 million.
"2014 finished well and order books going into 2015 are healthy with the fundamentals of the markets in which we operate looking satisfactory," said Porvair Chief Executive Ben Stocks.
"All key initiatives are progressing well and new product development pipelines are promising. Capacity investments made in 2014 and planned for 2015 will allow for growth. The group has a strong balance sheet, a positive start has been made to the year and the board looks forward with confidence," Stocks added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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