Dialight Share News (DIA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Dialight PLC Thursday said profitability in the current financial year was only likely to be in line with last year's result because contracts for its obstruction system business were unlikely to land in time to boost profits this year.

The LED lighting company said it had announced one contract for the business that makes light systems for tall structures including communication towers and wind turbines, and had made good progress on getting other significant contracts, but not in time to lift profits this year.

"The delay in contract awards for obstruction systems means that the group's expectations for overall profitability are likely to be broadly in line with the prior year," it said in a statement.

It said its other lighting businesses were continuing to grow strongly, with no change in short- or long-term guidance.

The company had announced in August its first order from a major operator in North America for its new cellphone tower remote monitoring and lighting system, part of the obstruction system unit. At the time it had said it was confident the new system would drive growth in North America and help the obstruction system unit to return to overall growth.

When it released half-year results in July, the company had warned that it was uncertain about when orders for obstruction systems would arrive, but had said it was confident it would meet market expectations for its full year results.

The market had been expecting the company to report a pretax profit of GBP23.84 million in 2013 and GBP32.85 million in 2014, according to consensus estimates from Hemscott. The EPS expectations were 50.13 pence for this year and 69.33 pence for 2014. The company reported a pretax profit of GBP19.8 million in 2012 and EPS of 40.22 pence.

Dialight shares were down 12% at 1,210 pence early Thursday, the biggest decline on the FTSE 250.

By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @SteveMcGrath1

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