19th Aug 2014 08:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - TT Electronics PLC Tuesday reported flat revenue and said it swung to a loss in the first-half of the year after being hit by currency exchange moves and hefty exceptional costs associated with its restructuring plans.
Despite posting a loss, the electronics company raised its interim dividend by 6.2% to 1.7 pence, which it said reflects its confidence in its forward order book and the future prospects of the business.
"Recent trading is in line with our expectations and the cumulative ratio of orders to sales for the group overall continues to be positive, providing confidence that the underlying full year performance will be in line with the board's expectations," said Chairman Sean Watson in a statement.
TT Electronics said it swung to a pretax loss of GBP0.4 million for the six months to June 30, from a GBP8.9 million profit a year earlier,after being hit by GBP12.7 million in exceptional costs compared with only GBP2.6 million in 2013. The exceptional costs were associated with its operational improvement and restructuring programme, it said.
"The charge in the first half arose from the move of production from Fullerton, California to Mexico and reorganisation costs arising from the proposed transfer of manufacturing at Werne, Germany to our best cost facilities principally in Romania," the company said.
Revenue in the period was flat at GBP261.1 million, however at constant currency, excluding foreign exchange moves, the company said it rose 4.1%.
"The impact of currency movement in the period was GBP10.6 million on revenues and GBP1.1 million on operating profit," the company said.
TT Eletronics said order momentum in the first-half was positive, and that it is confident in further growth for the second-half.
The company said it has a strong balance sheet, with a modest debt level of GBP14.9 million at the end of June.
"We plan to continue to invest organically in the business and make appropriate acquisitions where we can clearly demonstrate value," it said.
TT Electronics shares were down 4.3% at 179.00 pence Tuesday morning.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Tt Electronics