LONDON (Alliance News) - Avon Rubber PLC hiked its interim dividend on Wednesday after underlying profit increased thanks to better revenue.
Avon Rubber said pretax profit for the financial half year to the end of March was GBP6.1 million, down from GBP8.4 million a year earlier after it booked a GBP2.7 million one-off costs related to acquisitions. Stripping out the one-off cost, however, adjusted pretax profit for the half grew slightly to GBP8.8 million from GBP8.4 million.
Avon said it will pay a 3.16 pence interim dividend, up 30% from 2.43p a year earlier.
Revenue in the first half grew to GBP66.3 million from GBP62.3 million, helped by the integration of the Argus and InterPuls businesses that Avon acquired. InterPuls develops specialist milking components, and Argus is a thermal imaging camera systems firm.
Avon said its dairy business continued to grow in the first half, despite cyclically soft conditions in the wider market, while its military order pipeline is strong, though the timing of orders from this sector remains difficult to predict.
"Avon has enjoyed another positive half year, successfully integrating our recent acquisitions which broaden our product range and routes to market," said Chief Executive Rob Rennie.
Rennie said trading is normally weighted to the second half for its Protection & Defence unit, and this remains its expectation for the current financial year. As a result, he expects progress in the second half and said the group should meet market expectations for the year to the end of September.
Avon shares were up 13% to 807.80p Wednesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Avon Protection (AVON)