23rd Feb 2016 09:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Vitec Group PLC Tuesday said remains confident about its future growth prospects, although it warned challenging market conditions look likely to continue in 2016, as it report a fall in pretax profit for 2015.
Vitec provides products and services for the broadcast and photographic markets.
Vitec reported a pretax profit of GBP18.5 million for 2015, down from GBP20.1 million in 2014, on revenue of GBP317.8 million, up from GBP309.6 million, mostly as a result of higher administrative costs. The company attributed its weaker performance to the non-repeat of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Fifa World Cup, as well as a hit from foreign exchange rates.
Group gross margin was 80 basis points lower in 2015 at 40.8%, down from 41.6% in 2014, mostly due to a hit from foreign exchange, partly offset by a boost from acquisitions and increased sales of higher margin technology products.
The company proposed a final dividend of 15.1 pence, takings its total dividend to 24.6 pence, up from 24.0 pence a year before.
Vitec said that as a result of continuing challenging markets it will be undertaking further restructuring within its broadcast division, which will lead to higher one-off costs of around GBP10 million than the GBP6 million it had previous estimated in 2016. It expects these actions to be completed by the end of the year.
"Vitec remains in a sound financial position and the board remains confident about the future growth prospects of the group. Although challenging market conditions look likely to continue in 2016, we have taken actions to streamline our lower growth businesses while building a strong platform and making investments in higher technology products that will position us to grow sales and margins in the future," said Chief Executive Stephen Bird in a statement.
Shares in Vitec were untraded Tuesday morning. They last closed at 547.50 pence.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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