LONDON (Alliance News) - Critical communications provider Sepura PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit rose in its 2015 financial year on the back of higher revenue and is confident on its future following recent acquisitions, as it also said it has appointed a new finance chief.
Sepura said its pretax profit for the year to 27 March was EUR16.7 million, up from EUR14.2 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to EUR131.2 million from EUR116.6 million. The group said it saw strong demand across its core markets, with 217,000 radios delivered worldwide in the year, up 15% from the year earlier.
The group also said it has a record order backlog in place a the year end of EUR41 million for delivery in its current financial year, boosted by orders for 63,000 terminals for a public safety network in Saudi Arabia.
Sepura has also recently completed the EUR127.5 million acquisition of Teltronic SAU, the wireless communications company, in a deal it expects to boots its presence in the US and Latin American markets.
On the back of the results, Sepura said it will hike its final dividend payout to 1.71 pence per share, up from 1.41 pence, meaning its total dividend for the year will be 2.4 pence per share, a 20% rise year-on-year.
"Our strategy to expand our addressable market has delivered a third consecutive year of record revenues and fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth in adjusted operating profits. We closed the year with a record order book that positions us for further organic growth in 2016, while the recent transformational acquisition of Teltronic provides additional scale and enhanced visibility together with a further broadening of our product portfolio and geographical reach," said John Hughes, Sepura's chairman.
In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Sepura also said it has hired Richard Smith as its new chief financial officer. He will join the company no later than January 2, 2016 and joins from his role as the chief executive of Imagination Technologies Group PLC, the chipmaker.
Sepura shares were up 2.8% to 165.00 pence in early trade on Tuesday, one of the best performers in the FTSE All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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