10th Dec 2020 12:01
(Alliance News) - RWS Holdings PLC on Thursday said stronger revenue in its Life Sciences and Moravia divisions mitigated headwinds in IP Services, leading to results for its 2020 financial year being largely flat on a year before.
The provider of language services and technology posted a pretax profit for the year ended September 30 of GBP58.7 million, up from GBP57.7 million a year prior. Revenue was flat at GBP355.8 million, compared to GBP355.7 million.
Chair Andrew Brode said: "The group has delivered a resilient performance, reflecting its diversified revenue streams across its three specialized divisions, with stronger levels of activity in Life Sciences and Moravia mitigating headwinds in IP Services."
Life Sciences revenue was up 6.1% to GBP69.5 million from GBP65.5 million. Moravia revenue rose 5.3% to GBP173.6 million from GBP164.9 million.
IP Services revenue was down 10% to GBP112.8 million from GBP125.2 million.
RWS upped its final dividend to 7.25 pence per share from 7.00p. This brings the yearly payout to 9.00p per share, up 2.9% from 8.75p.
Going forward, Brode said: "The new financial year has begun positively, slightly ahead of our expectations. We have no net debt and whilst our focus is on integrating SDL, our strong balance sheet places us in pole position to compete for the most attractive acquisition opportunities."
Language translation & content management solutions provider SDL was acquired by RWS in early November.
Chief Executive Richard Thompson said: "Following the acquisition of SDL, RWS is now the world's leading provider of language services and language technology, focusing on key market segments where the quality and scale of its services combined with its market leading technology is of critical importance to its clients."
RWS shares were down 2.8% at 564.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Greg Roxburgh; [email protected]
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