14 September 2010 – interim results
The energy consultancy group KBC Advanced Technologies has reported interim results to 30 June which reflect the challenging conditions in the energy market. Revenue has declined to £25.6m (2009: £27.1m) and underlying pre-tax profit fell to £1.4m (2009: £2.4m). Earnings per share on the same basis fell to 1.6p (2009: 2.8p), although the interim dividend was increased to 0.55p (2009: 0.45p) reflecting the board’s confidence in the future. Net cash at the end of the period was £1.7m (2009: £1.8m) although the cash balance should increase in the second half as it did last year.
Although these results clearly suffered from the uncertainty in the energy sector, the rest of the year is expected to see higher levels of activity. Pre-tax profits for the full year should be around £5.0m for earnings per share of 5.5p. On this basis the shares do not look expensive, especially given the strong balance sheet and the shares are ATTRACTIVE