27th Feb 2014 14:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ricardo PLC Thursday said its pretax profit jumped significantly on strong revenues from its Technical Consulting and Performance Products divisions.
The engineering and environmental consulting company said its pretax profit increased 52% to GBP8.8 million for the six months ended December 31 from GBP5.8 million in the previous year as revenues increased 12% to GBP111.9 million from GBP100.3 million in 2012.
The company said revenues from its Technical Consulting division increased 10% to GBP84.7 million as businesses gained momentum during the second quarter, and its UK operations remaining its main business in terms of profit generation.
Ricardo added that revenues at its Performance Products division increased 15% to GBP27.2 million, underpinned by increased motorsport activity and monorail transmissions, which more than offset a reduction in the delivery of defence vehicles.
The company said its order book is encouraging, with its period end order book at a record level of GBP143 million, across multiple geographies and divisions.
Ricardo increased its interim dividend 8% to 4.3 pence per share from 4.0 pence the previous year.
The company added that with the economic backdrop slowly improving, its order book developing and a strong balance sheet it remains confident of further progress in the future.
Ricardo shares were down 0.3% to 728 pence Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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