(Alliance News) - 600 Group PLC on Tuesday said it expects to report annual profit in line with year before, crediting a swift response from management amid the virus pandemic.
Shares were up 15% at 13.50 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
Elland, England-based 600 Group is a diversified industrial engineering firm.
Underlying pretax profit for the financial year that ended March 31 is expected to be USD1.1 million, unchanged from financial 2020. At a statutory level, 600 Group had swung to a pretax loss of USD633,000 in financial 2020 from a profit of USD4.3 million in financial 2019.
Revenue in the recent year is expected to be USD53.5 million, a fall of 20% from USD67.2 million. The company cited the impact of Covid-19 as the main reason for the drop in revenue.
The order book stood at USD22.5 million on Thursday last week, a rise of 60% from USD14.1 million on March 31. The company noted that USD12.9 million of the current order book relates to the group's Industrial Laser Division.
There is a strong pipeline of opportunities across all operating divisions, in particular in the group's Industrial Laser Division, 600 Group said, with back-office functions of Control Micro Systems taking a number of large new orders in the current year, including a USD4.3 million order earlier this month, which was the largest in its history.
"Having successfully restructured the group's 2022 8% loan notes to provide financial flexibility, the group is now positioned as a leaner and more efficient organisation which can take advantage of the operational gearing in our activities as volumes continue to increase," the company said.
Net debt was reduced to USD12.8 million on March 31 from USD14.2 million a year before.
"Whilst there still remains some uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the board continues to believe in the long-term fundamentals of the goup, in brand promotion, investment in new, higher end product capabilities and diversification into new markets and selective acquisitions," 600 Group said.
By Amrit Sahota; newsroom@alliancenews.com
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