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(Alliance News) - Filtronic PLC on Tuesday said its operations were "resilient" during the first half of financial 2021 despite the challenging impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Leeds-based antenna manufacturer reported its pretax loss for the six months ended November 30 narrowed to GBP143,000 from GBP671,000 in 2019.
Revenue in the period was down 5.3% to GBP7.1 million compared to GBP7.5 million in the equivalent period in 2019. Filtronic said revenue was hit by a slowdown in sales to the public safety market and a slower than anticipated switch by its lead telecoms original equipment manufacturer customer from the Orpheus generation of Filtronic's 5G E-band XHaul transceiver to the next generation Morpheus platform.
Filtronic said its net debt when including right of use property leases was GBP600,000 at November 30 compared to GBP700,000, while net cash when excluding right of use property leases at November-end was GBP400,000, unchanged from six months prior.
"Whilst the impact of Covid-19 on the outlook remains uncertain, the fundamentals of the group remain intact with year-on-year growth of earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation anticipated for financial 2021 despite the disruption we are seeing in the wider economy," said Chair Reg Gott.
"The broadening of the customer base is the key strategic objective of the group but with travel restrictions constraining commercial engagement this has proved more challenging to achieve. Despite this, the group has actively progressed its strategy to develop the channels to market across multiple territories and is currently in the early stages of executing the marketing plan to raise the profile of the company and build the brand in existing and adjacent markets," he added.
Shares in Filtronic were down 5.8% at 8.01 pence in London on Tuesday.
By Zoe Wickens; zoewickens@alliancenews.com
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