Holders warns on profits

Uncertainty in the European printed circuit board (PCB) market helped push Holders Technology into the red at the interim stage, prompting the group to issue a profits warning.The international distributor of materials, equipment, parts and services to the electronics industry made a pre-tax loss of £0.1m in the half year ended May 31st, versus an interim profit of £10.1m the year before on revenues of £8.0m compared to £10.1m last year. Losses per share were 1.98p against earnings of 5.58p the previous year. The interim dividend per share was reduced to 1p from 2.10p the previous year. Net assets per share declined from 155p to 147p. The group said the European PCB market was especially soft in the opening months of the year, since when there has been some recovery, enabling the firm's PCB activities to more or less break even over the half year. "We have thoroughly reviewed the prospects for the second half of the year, and while we do expect an improvement in trading which will offset the shortfall in the first half, it appears probable that the out-turn for the full year will be below market expectation."Cash at the end of the period increased from £0.067m to £0.66m. The share price plunged 12.38% to 81.50p by 12:58.NR