2nd Mar 2015 07:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC on Monday posted a massive fall in pretax profit for 2014, hit by the early termination of a contract in Oman, though the group said that excluding the impact of the Oman contract, its results were broadly in line with its expectations.
The company's statutory pretax profit fell to GBP21.5 million from GBP49.3 million last year. Excluding the termination of its Oman Airport IT contract, pretax profit rose to GBP68.4 million against GBP45.1 million.
Underlying pretax profit, stripping out both the Oman deal and other one-off costs, was broadly flat at GBP112 million against GBP112.6 million a year ago.
Revenue for the year was down to GBP713.7 million from GBP745.2 million including the termination of the Oman deal. Stripping that out, revenue ticked down slightly to GBP702 million against GBP703.5 million.
Ultra said it will pay a final dividend of 31.1 pence per share, against 29.5 pence a year earlier, and said its total dividend for the year would rise 5.0% to 44.3 pence from 42.2 pence in 2013.
"In 2014 group order intake increased significantly, reflecting demand across our market segments for Ultra's specialist capabilities. Market conditions, specifically government spending pressures in the US and UK, continued to frustrate revenues in 2014, although excluding Oman the second half performance showed an improvement on the first half," said Rakesh Sharma, Ultra Electronics' Chief Executive.
"Within the group, good progress has been made in implementing market facing initiatives whilst continuing prudent cost management. The events that culminated in the early termination of our Oman Airport IT contract provided an unwelcome distraction, although this will allow us to bring to a head what is a unique and increasingly difficult commercial contract. The group intends to vigorously pursue all options towards a satisfactory settlement," Sharma added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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