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LONDON (Alliance News) - Industrial chains and power-transmission products company Renold PLC on Tuesday said it swung to profit in the financial year to the end of March as lower costs and fewer one-off costs made up for a slight decline in revenue a reported currencies.
Renold said its pretax profit for the year to March 31 was GBP7.7 million, compared to a GBP5.9 million loss a year earlier when the group's operating costs were higher and as it booked one-off charges of GBP11.8 million, compared to only GBP2.8 million in 2015.
Revenue for the group fell to GBP181.4 million in the recent year from GBP184 million the year before, though at constant currencies revenue was up to GBP181.4 million from GBP177.9 million.
The group said it saw constant currency revenue growth in Europe, the Americas, China and India, though Australasian revenue fell slightly due to weak commodities markets.
Torque Transmission constant currency revenue was down 1.1% in the year, though some improvement was seen in the second half.
In the Chains arm, the group completed the closure of its Bredbury facility in the year as part of a wider move to reduce excess capacity. It now expects the long-term annual gains from the closure to be around GBP3.8 million, around GBP0.6 million higher than its initial estimate.
Renold said it would not pay a dividend for the year due to the investment plans it has set out and the subsequent need for capital to back those plans.
Robert Purcell, Renold's chief executive, said the company had made "strong gains across a wide range of our key performance indicators" in the financial year. "We are now focusing on our new target of achieving operating margins in the mid-teens by 2020 whilst delivering steady and continuous improvements in earnings per share," he added.
Renold shares were up 3.7% to 71.00 pence Tuesday morning, one of the best performers in the FTSE All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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