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(Alliance News) - discoverIE Group PLC on Wednesday hailed positive trading momentum in the third quarter and announced the completion of the Magnasphere Corp acquisition.
The Surrey-based maker of customised electronics said sales in the three months ended December 31 were up 11% year-on-year, of which 5% was organic. It said the third quarter sales represented a new record high, up 2% from the second quarter.
For the nine months ended on the same date, group sales were up 21% ahead of last year, of which 11% was organic.
discoverIE said its order book remains at a high level and ahead of last year. It added that it has begun to normalise from the record level of GBP257 million recorded at September 30, as it converts into sales. It expects this to continue through the final quarter of the year.
The company said it is on track to deliver full-year underlying earnings ahead of the board's expectations.
discoverIE didn't provide any actual sales figures in its trading update, just percentage changes.
Back in November, discoverIE had reported revenue of GBP219.7 million for the six months that ended September 30, up 26% from GBP174.3 million a year before. Pretax profit surged to GBP14.8 million from GBP6.4 million.
Additionally on Wednesday, discoverIE said it completed the acquisition of Magnasphere, a US-based company that designs and manufactures magnetic sensors and switches for industrial electronic purposes. discoverIE bought the company in December for USD22.0 million, funded from existing debt facilities.
"The acquisition is expected to be immediately enhancing to group underlying earnings as well as accretive to the group's underlying operating margin," discoverIE said.
Shares were up 3.1% at 816.65 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.
By Xindi Wei, Alliance News reporter
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