22 November 2011 – preliminary results
The latest financial year has been significant for the group as it has successfully repositioned itself as a specialist engineering group following the takeover of Amco in February. Revenues in the year to 30 September have increased by 23% to £356.7m (2010: £290.4m) whilst adjusted pre-tax profits have risen by 76% to £8.1m (2010: £4.6m). Earnings per share have grown to 9.6p (2010: 5.3p) and the dividend is maintained at 3.0p. These results are clearly impressive in current market conditions and demonstrate that the company can deliver sustainable, profitable growth in its key market areas of Energy, Environmental and Infrastructure. The group has a strong order book of £285m (2010: £304m) but what is more important is that most of this is in higher margin engineering services, where the order book has risen to £179m (2010: £82m). With further growth expected in the current year, the shares remain a BUY.