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LONDON (Alliance News) - Pressure Technologies PLC swung to a pretax loss in the first half of its financial year despite revenue increasing, as it booked costs associated with acquisitions and was hit by a fall in the price of crude oil.
The high-pressure engineering group reported a pretax loss in the 26 weeks to March 28 of GBP522,000, having made a GBP1.3 million pretax profit in the same period the year before, despite revenue growing by more than half to GBP32.1 million from GBP19.9 million.
Pressure Technologies said it booked GBP0.2 million in acquisition costs as well as an amortisation charge of GBP1.1 million.
It also said it was hit by challenging market conditions resulting from a drop in the price of crude oil. Continuing demand and supply imbalance led to oil companies delaying exploration and production spending, resulting in project postponements, cancellations and requests for price reductions, the company said.
Pressure Technologies maintains its interim dividend at 2.8 pence year-on-year.
"Whilst we cannot escape the current, very challenging conditions within the oil and gas market, the group is now much better balanced and the board will continue efforts to broaden our customer, technology and industrial base. The board remains confident in the medium to long-term prospects for the group," Chairman Alan Wilson said in a statement.
Shares in Pressure Technologies were trading up 2.0% at 209.00 pence Tuesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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