Goodwin Share Price (GDWN)

The third is the development of efficient gas turbines which will result in a 25 megawatt prototype unit. It will be built by 2015 in conjunction with Toshiba Japan. The project is supported by the Carbon Capture Storage grant, as announced at the Kyoto conference last month. Goodwin recently borrowed an extra £5m with a five-year line of credit from Lloyds Bank despite profits in its interim report.

Engineering firm Goodwin revealed a considerable climb in revenue in its half-yearly results Wednesday following an increase in turnover and growth in the market. The group reported revenue of £68m for the six months ended October 31st, up 26% from £54.3m in the comparative period the year before. Pre-tax profits for the mechanical and refractory engineering company soared to £10.4m compared to £6.1m in the previous year. The company credited its positive results to higher demand in supplies to the oil, gas and energy industries. "We have significant vertical integration between our group companies and, as such, the combination of the individual trading company revenues is some 20% greater than the above stated Group revenue and this vertical integration allows for greater efficiency," Goodwin explained in a statement. Goodwin has plans in place for the continued growth of the company with a number of government supported programs over next five years. The company has received up to £6m from the government for three major projects. The first project is to train 25 apprentices per year over the next five years to boost employment. The second is developing a new apprentice school, four high tech office and factory units and a new range of valves through a Regional Growth Fund grant.

Engineering and steel castings firm Goodwin said its first quarter performance was in line with expectations. Revenue in the three months to July 31st rose to £30.39m from £26.00m in the corresponding period of 2011, while profit before tax surged to £3.76m from £2.43m a year earlier.

Richard Goodwin, the Managing Director of Goodwin, sold just over 5,000 shares in the company on Friday, the same day the engineering and steel castings firm reported strong growth in profits. The director traded in the shares at 1,330p a pop, earnings himself £67,404 and reducing his stake to 31,320 shares. The company, which in the 12 months to the end of April increased its pre-tax profits by 51% to £12.3m, chose to restrict its dividend to allow for greater investment.

As a key performance indicator, R & D continues within all Group companies whether it is to reduce manufacturing cost or develop new products that we consider there is a significant need for in the market over the next ten or more years. The Group considers the level of R & D expenditure sustainable and this year it comprised 7.5% of pre-tax profits, appropriate for securing the long term growth of the group. As detailed in note 20 to the financial statements to be published shortly, at 30th April 2012 our capital base was £60 million, an increase of £3 million over the previous year, and the Group had unutilised bank facilities of £15 million. With Group activity levels likely to be significantly higher this coming financial year, gearing levels (currently at 33%) and cash flow remains under pressure due to the need for increased levels of working capital to finance higher levels of debtors and work in progress as well as the funding needed for the three projects should they proceed. A decision will be taken in the second quarter as to whether the Group takes on additional lines of credit and maintains a safety buffer on our banking facilities or whether the increased working capital needs are funded from post tax profits. The former route will be the more likely one. We are once again grateful to our UK and overseas employees for their hard work in improving the performance of the Group. JW Goodwin Chairman 27th July 2012

Chairman's Statement I am pleased to report that the pre-tax profit for the Group for the twelve month period ending 30th April 2012 was £12.3 million (2011: £8.1 million), an increase of 51% on a revenue of £107.9 million (2011: £92.9 million) which is up 16.15% on the figures reported for the same period last financial year. The Directors propose a dividend of 32.082p (2011: 29.166p). The gross profit earned of £30.8 million was higher by 21.3% than for the previous financial year. This improvement in gross profit and net pre-tax profit earned stems from the recovery in performance of our two valve companies, especially Goodwin International. The foundry also reported record profits. The Group order work load as at 30th April 2012 was 22% higher than the same period last year and stood at £78 million which still represents about seven months work at higher levels of activity. The Group, whilst being diverse, still focuses much attention on the world wide energy industries be they oil and gas or high efficiency power generation. Both these two sectors by definition have a long term future as the world population continues to grow and attain higher living standards especially in the Pacific Basin and also as the more mature markets strive to increase the efficiency of their power generation capacity and reduce their CO2 output into the atmosphere as well as replace ageing facilities. The decision to only increase the dividend by 10% to £2.31 million will assist the company in being able to finance three significant projects that will be started subject to approval of the grant applications that we have submitted. The first grant application, which is to the Employer Ownership Pilot Fund, is to set up a much larger apprentice training school that will train 125 engineering apprentices to levels 3 and 4 over the next five years. The second application which is a Regional Growth Fund application is to expand the clean activity of the foundry on our adjacent 7.9 acre site as well as to start a new valve company and build four office/ factory units on the same site. The third application is for a CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage) grant where our foundry will develop further the manufacturing capability of two super nickel alloys for use in high temperature gas and steam turbines, on which we will advise you further at the half year.