Sabien on the boil

Sales, profits and the order book are all heating up nicely at energy saving device developer Sabien Technology.The company saw a 63% hike in profit before tax during the six months ended December 31st to £0.3m from £0.19m the year before.Revenue rose to £1.5m from £1.1m the previous year. The company said £354k of orders have been received since January 1st 2012 giving total orders received for year to date of £1.86m, which is already nine-tenths of what the company sold in the whole of the previous fiscal year.Orders from indirect partners for the year to date now amount to £603k which represents 32% of orders received." The sales pipeline currently stands at £9.5m, up from £8.3m at the time of the company's previous update in October of last year.The size of the sales pipeline is regarded by management as a key performance indicator as it gives a clue to the amount of business that could be generated over the following 6-24 months. Sabien's experience is that it can take at least 18 months for a customer enquiry to convert to a sales order.The cash situation is also looking healthy at £1.34m, up from £1.03m at the end of June 2011."Growth from our existing business in the form of repeat orders has created a solid platform for 2012. Taken together with the sales performance since 1 January 2012, the group is well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities as and when they appear," the firm said. The share price rose 25% to 38.75p by 13:56.NR