17 December 2019 – final results

The specialist engineering group has announced results for the year ended 28 September 2019.  Revenue was up 34% to £28.3m (2018: £21.2m) and adjusted operating profit jumped from £1.0m to £2.2m.  The reported loss before tax narrowed from £1.7m to £0.5m and adjusted earnings per share improved from 2.9p to 7.8p.  There was an adjusted net operating cash inflow of £2.0m (2018: £1.9m) and net debt at the period end was £11.4m, up from £6.7m a year earlier.  Overall there was significantly improved trading performance and operating results in line with market expectations, driven by UK and export defence contracts and increasing momentum in the global oil and gas market.  The outlook is relatively good and with the shares still languishing at a low level we rate them as a BUY.