28th Jul 2014 08:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - XP Power Ltd said Monday it expects to grow revenue in 2014, although it cautioned about the strength of sterling against the dollar, as it saw pretax profit rise in the half year to end-June.
The power-control components developer and manufacturer raised its interim dividend to 25.0 pence per share from 23.0 pence.
XP Power posted a pretax profit of GBP12.2 million in the six months ended June 30, up from GBP10.4 million in the same period a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP50.2 million from GBP49.0 million and operating expenses declined slightly to GBP12.7 million from GBP13.3 million.
The company, which principally trades in US dollars, saw its results hit by the strong pound. At constant currency, revenue rose 9%, it said.
The company's gross margin improved to 49.8% from 48.6%, due to higher factory loading at its Chinese and Vietnamese manufacturing facilities.
It launched 13 new product families in the first half of the year, down from 17 in the previous year, and saw encouraging responses from customers to the new launches. It said its design teams are focusing on developing new products for applications including reducing power wastage, reducing heat, and consuming fewer raw materials.
XP Power noted that, whilst capital goods markets remain subdued overall, its order intake remains encouraging.
Although it its confident for revenue growth in the year, this will be hit by the effect of the strong pound, it warned.
Shares XP Power were trading up 4.3% at 1,553.94 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Xp Power