LONDON (Alliance News) - Tube manipulation company Tricorn Group PLC saw its shares fall Tuesday after it warned that its first-half revenue will be down on the year and its pretax loss won't narrow by as much as it had hoped as its performance in the US transportation business has lagged behind expectations.
The company said it expects revenue in the six months to end-September to be up 8% on the six months to end-March, the second half of its last financial year, but down 6% year-on-year.
It said its first-half US transportation revenue will be "notably" lower than in the first half of its last financial year, and broadly level with US revenue in the second half of that year.
"Operationally, performance has not been at targeted levels and has necessitated some changes within the local management team. Performance is expected to improve in the second half of the year," it said in a trading update.
The company said its UK business is benefiting from some recovery in its markets, and China revenue is continuing to grow, although growth in the China transportation business has been slower than planned due to some delays in new product introductions.
In the half-year, the group sold off its Aerospace business for GBP1.1 million in order to focus on its Energy and Transportation businesses.
It said its Energy arm is benefiting from the restructuring undertaken last year and is delivering a better operational performance. Revenue from the division is expected to grow half-on-half and year-on-year.
Tricorn reported a pretax loss of GBP343,000 in the full year to March 31, 2014 on revenue of GBP24.5 million. Its loss in the first half of that year was GBP204,000 on revenue of GBP13.3 million.
Shares in the group were down 11.1% to 14 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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