(Alliance News) - Essentra PLC on Wednesday reported a ballooned loss in 2022 despite higher revenue, along with a significant loss from discontinued operations.
The company posted a pretax loss of GBP29.1 million in 2022, widened from GBP7.1 million. Revenue grew 12% to GBP337.9 million from GBP301.7 million. However, it turned to a loss from discontinued operations of GBP152.7 million, from a profit of GBP33.2 million.
The Oxford-based components company recommended a final ordinary dividend of 1.0 pence per share, bringing the total payout to 3.3p, just over half of the 6.0p paid out in 2021.
Despite the lower profit and payout, the company noted that at December 31, it had a net funding surplus of GBP114 million, swung from net debt of GBP235 million a year ago.
Essentra said it also will begin its GBP60 million buyback programme, to repurchase ordinary shares at 25p each. The programme, which returns the proceeds from its Packaging and Filters disposals, will run until no later than December 31.
It intends to cancel the majority of the repurchased shares, reserving a portion for its share option schemes. It will also pay out a special dividend of 29.8p in relation to the disposals.
Essentra said it outlook for 2023 remains unchanged. "Although we continue to see distributor destocking, trading in Europe continues to be robust and China's reopening will increasingly benefit our business in Asia," Essentra said. In the year to date, like-for-like orders are 8% ahead of 2022 levels.
Essentra shares were 1.1% higher at 179.40 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter
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Essentra (ESNT)