27 November – interim results
The niche plastics group has announced its interim results to 30 September revealing a slight drop of 3% in revenue to £15.7m (2011: £16.3m) with adjusted pre-tax profits falling by 7% to £1.83m (2011: £1.97m). Earnings per share on the same basis were 4% higher at 5.5p (2011: 5.3p) due to a lower tax charge and the interim dividend has been doubled to 0.66p (2011: 0.33p). Net debt has dropped by 24% over the last year to £8.6m (2011: £11.2m) taking the total reduction to £10m over the last three years. Although overall revenues are down, this is due to weak demand from Europe and revenues outside the eurozone rose by 7% as a result of new business wins. With long-term prospects looking good we re-iterate our recommendation of BUY.