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(Alliance News) - Shares in Avingtrans PLC dropped on Wednesday as its interim profit nearly halved on higher exceptional charges, despite growth in revenue.
Shares in the engineering firm were down 11% at 281.00 pence on Wednesday in London.
For the six months to the end of November, Chatteris, UK-based Avingtrans reported a drop in pretax profit to GBP340,000 from GBP649,000 the year before, due to a rise in exceptional items to GBP398,000 from GBP75,000.
There was also an increase in the amortisation of intangibles from business combinations at GBP931,000 from GBP768,000 the prior year.
On an adjusted basis, pretax profit increased by 6.2% to GBP1.7 million from GBP1.6 million.
In addition, revenue grew by 15% to GBP54.8 million from GBP47.7 million, as revenue from Energy was buoyed by the acquisitions of Booth Industries and Energy Steel Inc in June.
Avingtrans declared an interim dividend of 1.5 pence per share, up 7.1% from 1.4p the year before.
Looking ahead, Avingtrans said it remains confident in its future, citing its attractive structural growth markets, customer relationships and long-term contracts. The group said it is confident in achieving market expectations, on robust trading to date.
"Another solid period of progress saw the group meeting expectations. The former Hayward Tyler group businesses are now fully integrated into Avingtrans and continuing to improve overall, under the investment and development phase of our pinpoint-invest-exit strategy," said Chair Roger McDowell.
"Each year brings fresh challenges and opportunities, we remain robust and confident about our prospects in both the Energy and Medical sectors. The positive crop of orders underpins our on-going confidence in the outlook," McDowell added.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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