16th Sep 2015 07:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Vislink PLC Wednesday said it swung to a loss in the first half of 2015 as it booked costs associated with the restructuring of its hardware division and it did not repeat the gains it made last year, but said that the restructuring will lead to improved results in the future.
Shares in Vislink were trading down 16% at 45.50 pence following the announcement.
The video technology business for the broadcast and surveillance markets said that it made a pretax loss of GBP881,000 in the six months to June 30, having made a GBP2.0 million pretax profit in the first half of 2014.
Revenue also declined slightly to GBP26.6 million from GBP27.1 million, which it said resulted from poorer trading in Vislink Communication Systems due to challenging market conditions, although it said that a restructuring of the hardware division, new investment products and an increasing order pipeline "provide an encouraging platform and improved results" from that area of the business.
The restructuring of the hardware division did lead to costs of GBP1.7 million however, resulting in an overall loss for the company. Vislink had also benefited the prior year from a GBP2.0 million release of deferred consideration in respect of its acquisition of Amplifier Technology in 2013.
Vislink added that gross margin improved by 8.4 percentage points to 51.2% from 42.8%, benefiting from the increasing contribution of software revenue from Pebble Beach Systems.
"The group is confident of its strategy and transition to software and services, which will benefit the group as a whole in 2015 and beyond," Chairman John Hawkins said in a statement.
"As our software offering grows we will enhance visibility of earnings and margins, and remain completely aligned to our shareholders' objectives of delivering long term profitable growth. The group enters the second half of 2015 with renewed confidence with the expansion of our ever increasing software portfolio and a more efficient integrated communication division," he added.
Vislink will not pay an interim dividend, as in previous years.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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