Preliminary results announcement
11th May 2009
Petards Group plc ('Petards') announces preliminary audited results for the year ended 31 December 2008, which report a move into profitability.
Financial Results
- Revenues up 7% to £18.9m (2007: £17.7m)
- Revenues on a like-for-like basis (excluding UK software business disposed of in 2007) up 30%
- Operating profits of £0.9m (2007: £0.1m loss)
- Administrative expenses reduced by one third to £5.0m (2007: £7.7m)
- Profit after tax £1.0m (2007: £0.5m loss)
- Operating cash inflow of £0.5m (2007: £0.2m outflow) and net debt reduced to £2.2m (2007: £2.3m)
- Renegotiated £2.1m term loan and committed £1.75m working capital facilities secured into 2010
Other highlights
- Launch and first orders of next generation eyeTrain™ digital CCTV systems for trains
- Contracts awarded to fit forward facing camera technology on Virgin trains and to supply and install eyeTrain™ digital CCTV systems vehicles in Portugal and New Zealand
- Strong performance of ProVida™ products for the Emergency
- Services with revenues up over 40% and two significant orders during the year
- Defence business continues to perform well
Commenting on current outlook, Tim Wightman, Chairman, said: "Having put in place appropriate medium term banking facilities at the end of 2008, the Group starts 2009 in a better position than it was at the start of 2008 and it has continued to trade profitably in 2009. Net debt continues to be within forecast levels and the Group will commence repayments on its term loan as scheduled in July 2009.
"Undoubtedly the current economic climate is having some impact on the markets that we serve although we are not exposed to market sectors that are particularly vulnerable to the downturn. While we saw evidence of some customers delaying the placement of orders for financial reasons in the last quarter of 2008, order intake for the first four months of 2009 is ahead of that for the same period in 2008. We have recently secured some very good orders and our pipeline of order prospects continues to grow.
"Whilst the level of profitability in 2009 is dependant upon the timing of placement of future orders, the Board is confident that the business will continue to make progress in 2009 and 2010."