Hardide's FY losses widen as sales hit by oil and gas slowdown

(ShareCast News) - AIM-listed Hardide, which develops and provides advanced surface coating technology, reported a wider loss for the year to the end of September as sales took a hit from a downturn in the oil and gas market.The company reported a pre-tax loss of £1.46m compared to a loss of £207,000 the year before, as revenue declined to £2.14m from £3m. Hardide noted a drop in demand for customers in oil and gas exploration, as expected.Still, it pointed out that the second half saw a 25% improvement in sales over the first, with sales to customers in oil and gas and precision engineering sectors both rising by more than 50%.The group said indications from major oil and gas customers are that the bottom of the cycle has been reached, the oil market is close to balance and so drilling activity is expected to pick up next year.Chairman Robert Goddard said: "In common with most companies operating in the oil and gas supply chain, Hardide's full year performance was, as anticipated, adversely affected by depressed demand. This was due to the sector's longest and most severe downturn in decades."H2 saw an improvement over H1 with signs of a tentative recovery from oil and gas. New opportunities are emerging from key customers in this sector and we saw a substantial rise in sales to precision engineering customers."At 1213 GMT, the shares were down 9% to 0.75p.