600 Group trades ahead of post-pandemic expectations

(Sharecast News) - Industrial engineering company The 600 Group said on Thursday that despite the "exceptional impact" of Covid-19 on its businesses and world economy, the firm expects to have traded ahead of post-pandemic expectations,
600 anticipates reporting revenues of approximately $53.0m in the twelve months ended 31 March, down over 20% year-on-year, with underlying earnings pegged to be roughly $2.5m due to the implementation of operational cost savings and government assistance programmes.

The AIM-listed firm added that a strong increase in order activity seen in March had improved its overall order book to approximately $14.0m as of 31 March, almost 70% above the prior year, and also stated that over the last few weeks, activity had "significantly increased", with a further $4.0m of orders already received so far in April, highlighting that its much-improved order book was "particularly strong" in the higher-margin custom laser side of the business.

Chairman Paul Dupee said: "The particularly strong order activity over the last two months, supported by a level of government assistance, has enabled the business to maintain its skilled workforce during the pandemic. This has allowed us to respond quickly to recent demand and significantly improve the size and quality of the group's order book, leaving the business well placed as markets improve."

The company also stated that group net debt was $13.0m at the end of the trading year, a slight reduction when compared to the $14.2m reading at the end of March 2020.

As of 0935 BST, 600 Group shares had surged 22.40% to 10.71p.