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LONDON (Alliance News) - SRT Marine Systems PLC Tuesday reported a widened pretax loss for its first half, as it saw revenue fall due to a lack of "significant project deliverables" completed in the half.
The company, which makes maritime identification and tracking technologies, reported a pretax loss of GBP1.2 million for the half year to the end of September, widened from a pretax loss of GBP744,474 the previous year, as revenue declined to GBP2.7 million from GBP3.6 million.
SRT has in previous periods benefited from significant projects being delivered, mostly as a result of regulations and mandates requiring the take up of Automatic Identification System transceivers. It noted that there are now several AIS regulations and mandates active around the world, and noted that the enforcement of such regulations is key to creating demand for its transceivers.
It did note, however, that in its experience "enforcement is usually variable and patchy, and in some instances such as USA and EU Fisheries results in demand spread over several years in a random pattern."
SRT said that, during the first half it received high profile orders from the Panama Canal, Trinity House and a second larger port in Malaysia which are "important references" for the market.
It said it expects it will soon have "multiple projects underway" which it hopes will provide a "natural hedge" to offset lumpy revenue timings across its reporting periods.
"The development of projects in our sales opportunity pipeline and the emergence of new opportunities are driven by AIS having become established as a critical path technology in virtually every maritime domain awareness initiative. As such we continue to look to the future with great optimism and will update the market with further announcements and guidance as project deliverables are completed and new projects commence," said Chairman Simon Rogers in a statement.
Shares in SRT were down 3.5% at 37.64 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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