11th Jun 2019 10:52
(Alliance News) - Industrial fastenings maker Trifast PLC hiked its annual dividend Tuesday despite profit struggling amid a jump in IT infrastructure costs, though revenue continued to grow.
For the financial year ended March, pretax profit narrowed 11% to GBP16.4 million from GBP18.5 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 5.8% to GBP209.0 million from GBP197.6 million the year before.
Profit performance was primarily hurt due to exceptional costs associated with Trifast's Project Atlas upgrade of its IT infrastructure in order to facilitate future expansion. This amounted to GBP3.1 million in spending, up from GBP375,000 the year before.
Underlying pretax profit - excluding one-off costs - widened 5.9% to GBP23.5 million from GBP22.2 million the year before.
"The group has continued to perform well across all our regions, delivering another year of strong growth," Trifast Chief Executive Officer Mark Belton said.
"Trifast has delivered a solid performance and the directors remain optimistic about the progress the business will make over the coming financial year," Belton added. "Our highly experienced teams are dedicated to researching, developing, marketing and selling innovative products that meet today's high expectations that all our customers demand in terms of quality, value and price."
Trifast proposed a 3.05 pence per share final dividend, up 11% from 2.75p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 10% to 4.25p from 3.85p the year before.
"Despite the potential implications of Brexit and the continuing trade tensions between the US and China, the board remains confident in its strategy, its people and the group's flexibility to adapt to change," Belton continued.
Shares in Trifast were 3.4% lower at 227.00 pence on Tuesday.
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