Interim Results

26 April 2016

AB Dynamics plc("ABD" or the "Company" or the "Group" )

Interim Results for the 6 months ended 29 February 2016

AB Dynamics plc (AIM:ABDP), a designer, manufacturer and supplier of advanced testing systems and measurement products to the global automotive industry, is pleased to announce its Interim Results for the six month period to 29 February 2016.

Financial Highlights

· Revenues increased 34% to £10.11 million (H1 2015: £7.56 million)

· Profit before tax increased 50% to £2.26 million (H1 2015: £1.51 million)

· Net cash at 29 February 2016 of £10.15 million (H1 2015: £7.03 million)

· Interim dividend increased 10% to 1.21p per ordinary share (H1 2015: 1.1p)

Operational Highlights

· Further expansion of the Company's Support Engineering in Japan and Germany

· Dedicated Robot assembly area now in one location

· New Driver In Loop Simulator tie up with Williams Advanced Engineering

· Two additional Steering Robots developed to meeting future demand

· Achieved 12 sales of the Company's advanced Guided Soft Target

· New factory - work on infrastructure underway

Tim Rogers, Managing Director of AB Dynamics, commented:

"The Group continues to perform well with increased sales in Europe and Asia and our strategic alliance with Williams is an exciting development that will enable us to develop new products and solutions for our automotive customers. 

We have a good forward order book for the remainder of the year and we remain confident in the Group's ability to manage future growth. We are pleased to announce that the Directors are declaring an interim dividend of 1.21p per ordinary share."

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Managing Director's and Chairman's Statement

We are pleased to report on a successful first half of the financial year for AB Dynamics. Continued strong performance resulted in profit before tax for the half year to 29 February 2016, of £2.26 million (2015: £1.51 million) an increase of 50% and revenues of £10.11 million (2015: £7.56 million) an increase of 34% over the prior year's first half. Cash at the period end was £10.15 million (2015: £7.03 million).

The Group continues to enjoy strong demand for its products and services, with both its established and newly developed range of products driving the growth in revenues. Favourable currency conditions and further improvements to our manufacturing infrastructure and supply side have also improved operating margins.

The Company continues to invest and expand its design, manufacturing and support capacity, with two additional manufacturing units coming on line this year bringing our total floor area to 23,551 ft² (10,000 ft² in 2012). A parallel investment in manpower now sees the Company reaching a landmark of 76 employees. Concurrently, good progress is being made in the design and build of our new facility which is targeted for completion during 2017. The building will improve significantly the working environment and bring our UK operations together again under one roof, creating the necessary headroom for future growth. The investment in the new factory will be funded entirely from the Group's existing facilities over the next six months as the build program gathers momentum.

Our key markets in China, Europe, Korea and Japan remain strong and we see continued spend on R&D by the global automotive industry, notably in the areas of active safety systems and improved vehicle dynamics, where the Group's products are particularly suited.

The Board considers new product development and creation as key to the Group's continued growth. Not only will it bring us a new group of customers, but those customers can help us discover additional avenues for product expansion. We have embarked on a number of new development programs the most recent of which being the collaboration agreement with Williams Advanced Engineering for a novel Driver in Loop Simulator which will help our car customers develop safer and better cars by combining the driver with computational car modelling. This will complement our SPMM machine which is primarily used to generate the data to populate the aforementioned models.

We have a good forward order book for the remainder of the year and we remain confident in the Group's ability to manage future growth.

We are pleased to announce that the Directors are declaring an interim dividend of 1.21p per ordinary share. The ex-dividend date will be 5 May with a record date of 6 May and payment date 20 May 2016.

1. Basis of preparation

The Company is a public limited company limited by shares and incorporated under the UK Companies Act. The Company is domiciled in the United Kingdom and the registered office and principal place of business is Holt Road, Bradford upon Avon, Wiltshire, BA15 1AJ.

The principal activity is the specialised area of design and manufacture of test equipment for vehicle suspension, steering, noise and vibration. The Company also offers a range of services which include analysis, design, prototype manufacture, testing and development.

The interim financial information has been prepared in accordance with the basis of the accounting policies set out in the annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 August 2015, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted for use by the European Union. The interim accounts are unaudited and do not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006.

The same accounting policies, presentation and methods of computation have been followed in this unaudited interim financial information as those which were applied in the preparation of the Group's annual statements for the year ended 31 August 2015, upon which the auditors issued an unqualified opinion, and which have been delivered to the registrar of companies.

The interim financial information has been drawn up using accounting policies and presentation expected to be adopted in the Group's full financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2016. Any new standards that will be adopted in full for the first time in the year-end financial statements did not have a material impact on this interim financial information.

The interim financial information for the six months ended 29 February 2016 was approved by the Board on 25 April 2016.

The Directors are declaring an interim dividend of 1.21p per ordinary share. The ex-dividend date will be 5 May, the record date 6 May and the payment date 20 May 2016.

2. Earnings per share

The calculation of earnings per share is based on the following earnings and number of shares:

3. Analysis of revenue by geographical area and major customers

Material revenues attributable to individual foreign countries are as follows:

There were no material non-current assets located outside the United Kingdom.

Revenues are derived from the following: