10th Dec 2019 10:56
(Alliance News) - RWS Holdings PLC on Tuesday said strong growth and increased margins meant annual results came in ahead of market consensus.
The intellectual property support services provider also said underlying performance in the first two months of financial 2020 has been in line with the board's expectations but the sharp increase in the sterling versus dollar exchange rate is proving unhelpful.
For the year to September 30, the company recorded pretax profit of GBP57.7 million, up 45% from GBP39.7 million a year ago. Adjusted pretax profit rose 20% to GBP74.2 million.
Revenue increased 16% year-on-year to GBP355.7 million from GBP306.0 million, driven by 7% underlying organic sales growth.
By division, RWS Moravia, which accounted for 42% of group sales, recorded 18% growth in revenue to GBP149.9 million. RWS IP Services achieved 12% growth to GBP125.2 million and Life Sciences revenue advanced 25% to GBP65.5 million.
Chair Andrew Brode said: "This has been another remarkable year for the group, delivering our 16th year of unbroken growth in revenue, profit and dividends since flotation in November 2003. We look forward with confidence to achieving further progress in 2020."
RWS declared a final dividend of 7.00 pence per share, which, together with 1.75p interim, will result in a total dividend of 8.75p per share, up 17% year-on-year.
RWS shares were down 5.4% at 634.00 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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