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(Clarifying that Cohort's total order book grew in the half-year, despite a decline in organic order intake.)
LONDON (Alliance News) - Defence-focused technology company Cohort PLC said Monday that despite a swing to a loss and a decline in its organic order intake in the first-half, it is maintaining its full-year expectations with a "strong" closing order book.
Cohort reported a pretax loss of GBP3.2 million for the six months to October 31, swinging from a GBP85,000 profit in the same period the prior financial year. The company put its adjusted operating in the period at GBP3.9 million, up from GBP3.5 million in the same period in 2015.
The company said the swing to a loss was driven by the GBP2.2 million reorganisation costs of its subsidiary Systems Consultants Services Ltd, which will be integrated into Cohort's other divisions, as well as a GBP5.0 million cost in amortisation of intangible assets.
Cohort's revenue in the six-month period was GBP50.0 million, up slightly from GBP49.7 million the prior year.
The company proposed an interim dividend of 2.20 pence per share, increased from 1.90p in 2015.
Cohort's organic order intake in the first half was GBP37.1 million, down from GBP55.7 million in the same period in the prior year. The company said this was due to a number of contracts expected for renewal slipping into the second half. Including the GBP23.1 million acquired order book from EID, Cohort's total order intake for the first half was GBP63.6 million. Its total order book at the end of the period stood at GBP129.6 million, up from GBP116.0 million at April 30.
During the period, Cohort acquired a 57% controlling interest in Portuguese firm EID for GBP5.2 million. Cohort said that it has agreed in principle with the Portuguese government to increase its holding to 80% on the same terms and valuation, for an expected cash consideration of GBP3.5 million, with the government to retain a 20% stake in the company.
"We are confident of a strong second half performance across the whole group reflecting our normal seasonality, order book visibility, the benefit of a full second half contribution from EID and the elimination of SCS losses," said Nick Prest, chairman of Cohort.
"Overall, Cohort's order book and pipeline, market positions, capabilities and strong funding position provide confidence that we will make further progress in 2016/17, and we maintain our expectations for the full year," added Prest.
By Adam Clark; adamclark@alliancenews.com
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