5th Mar 2025 15:58
(Alliance News) - Ricardo PLC on Wednesday said its pretax loss narrowed as revenue increased in the first half, despite market headwinds.
The West Sussex, England-based engineering, environmental and strategic consulting firm said in the six months to the end of December pretax loss narrowed to GBP12.5 million from GBP12.9 million in the previous year.
Revenue increased 0.9% to GBP169.1 million from GBP167.6 million in the prior year.
The firm declared an interim dividend of 1.70 pence per share, down 55% from 3.80 pence at the same point last year.
Chief Executive Officer Graham Ritchie said: "With the sale of Ricardo Defense and the acquisition of E3 Advisory, we have demonstrated clear execution against our strategy, simplifying our business and accelerating our transition to environmental and energy solutions."
Looking ahead, Ricardo said it expects to see double digit underlying operating profit growth for the full-year, despite challenges in the macroeconomic environment.
Underlying operating profit multiplied to GBP8.3 million in the first half from GBP1.1 million.
The company said the improvement in underlying operating profit was "driven by higher margins and ongoing focus on cost to underpin profitability".
Ricardo noted a GBP36.8 million profit on the sale of Ricardo Defense, which was partly offset by a GBP14.0 million impairment of Emerging A&I due to "uncertainty over timing of order intake".
Chief Executive Officer Graham Ritchie noted "some market headwinds" in the first half which have impacted the timing of orders.
"Whilst we have seen volatility owing to elections leading to short term headwinds, our Energy and Environment business is core to our strategy, offering long-term resilient solutions that are required for energy transition and climate adaptation," he said.
Ritchie said: "Within our Automotive and Industrial engineering business we continue to see variability in demand from the automotive sectors, but this is becoming a smaller mix of our revenue as we diversify into Industrial segments, including marine, aerospace and stationary power, which gives confidence for longer-term growth.
"We remain confident that the actions we are taking to transition our portfolio of solutions, diversify our sales activity to new markets and our continued focus on cost control and operational efficiency will deliver mid-term profitable growth."
Ricardo shares were flat at 229.90 in London on Wednesday afternoon.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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