9th Sep 2020 10:34
(Alliance News) - Somero Enterprises Inc on Wednesday said that Covid-19 was a good "stress test" for the company as it begins the second half of 2020 "with confidence".
The provider of concrete-leveling equipment, training, education and support posted a pretax profit for the first half ended June 30 of USD7.5 million, narrowing from USD10.5 million a year prior.
Revenue was at USD35.3 million, compared to USD39.0 million a year before, representing a decline of 9%.
Somero said the main impact on trading performance was the global Covid-19 pandemic. "It created significant uncertainty and led to shelter-in-place restrictions, slowing the pace of construction projects and in turn slowing the pace of our trading."
The company declared an interim dividend of 4.00 US cents per share.
Going forward, Somero is confident and expects second half trading volumes to improve on the first half.
"This confidence is based on a healthy US non-residential construction market, supported by extended project backlogs reported by our customers, and based on the expectation for no meaningful increase to Covid-19 shelter-in-place restrictions in the US or Europe. The outlook also incorporates encouraging market demand seen for our new products, which we anticipate will be a positive contributor to the second half of 2020 trading," Somero said.
Chief Executive Jack Cooney said: "We begin the second half of the year with confidence in the strength of our financial position, in the flexibility of our operating model, and in the demand seen for our recently launched products. At the same time, we remain cautious with the full understanding the uncertainty associated with the global pandemic will likely remain in place through the remainder of the year."
Somero shares were up 20% at 250.00 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.
By Greg Roxburgh; [email protected]
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