6th Mar 2019 09:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in FTSE 250-listed defence and energy firm Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC jumped Wednesday after it hiked its 2018 dividend following a "good" second half.
Shares in Ultra were 7.0% higher at 1,374.00 pence on Wednesday.
In 2018, pretax profit narrowed to GBP42.6 million from GBP60.6 million the year prior. Revenue slipped 1.1% to GBP766.7 million from GBP775.4 million the year before, though rose 2.2% on an organic basis.
Profit performance also was hurt by a sharp rise in finance costs to GBP25.1 million from GBP13.3 million the year prior, whilst investment income halved to GBP6.2 million from GBP12.4 million the year before.
In addition, Ultra incurred a GBP3.2 million exceptional pension charge as well as seeing impairments rise to GBP7.6 million from GBP1.6 million the year prior.
Underlying pretax profit - excluding one-off items - narrowed to GBP101.4 million from GBP110.0 million the year before.
"After a good second half and having addressed a number of legacy issues, we delivered an encouraging set of results in 2018," Ultra Chief Executive Officer Simon Sryce said. "While there is much work to be done in the next phase of Ultra's development, we now have a solid platform from which to grow and deliver against our goal of creating long term, sustainable value for all our stakeholders."
Ultra proposed a 37.0 pence per share final dividend, up from 35.0p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose to 51.6p from 49.6p the year before.
"Significant additional potential exists in Ultra through focusing the group on where we add value, improving core processes and better leveraging the combined group's strengths and capabilities," Pryce added. "We anticipate that 2019 will be a year of good underlying progress and we look forward to an exciting future of growth with confidence."
In a separate announcement Wednesday, Ultra announced Non-Executive Director John Hirst will stand down after an appropriate replacement is hired.
Hirst - a non-exec since 2015 - made the move "due to his increasing non-Ultra commitments and his recent appointment as chair of the British Standards Institution," Ultra explained.
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