14 Nov
Announcement of Half Year Results for six months to 30 September 2017
Oxford Instruments plc, a leading provider of high technology products and systems for industry and research, today announces its Half Year Results for the six months to 30 September 2017.
|
|
Half year to 30 September 2017 |
Half year to 30 September 2016 |
% change |
|
|
£m |
£m |
|
|
Revenue1 |
132.1 |
132.4 |
-0.2% |
|
Adjusted* operating profit1 |
18.8 |
16.4 |
+14.6% |
|
Adjusted* profit before tax1 |
16.3 |
13.1 |
+24.4% |
|
Profit/(loss) before tax1 |
12.7 |
(0.6) |
|
|
Adjusted* basic earnings per share1 |
22.3p |
18.0p |
+23.9% |
|
Dividend per share (interim) |
3.7p |
3.7p |
|
|
Operating cash flow1 |
4.1 |
2.0 |
|
|
Net debt |
45.5 |
141.1 |
|
1Continuing operations
Financial Highlights:
- Reported orders up 6.0% to £148.5 million (2016: £140.1 million), an increase of 1.8% at constant currency
- Reported revenue in line with previous year, down 4.5% at constant currency
- Adjusted profit before tax from continuing operations up 24.4% to £16.3 million (2016: £13.1 million)
- Adjusted operating margin up 180 basis points primarily reflecting currency benefits
- Profit before tax from continuing operations of £12.7 million (2016: loss of £0.6 million)
- Constant currency order book of £141.8 million up 3.3% and 11.8% against September 2016 and March 2017 respectively
- Significantly strengthened balance sheet with proceeds from sale of Industrial Analysis leading to reduction in net debt to £45.5m (2016: £141.1 million)
- Interim dividend maintained at 3.7 pence
Operational Highlights:
- Implementation of Horizon Strategy is progressing, repositioning the Group for long term growth and margin improvement, building on our world-class nanotechnology expertise
- Building management, leadership and core capabilities across the Group
- Portfolio management progress with sale of Industrial Analysis completed in July 2017
- New market focused structure to align the Group’s management and reporting sectors with our customer and application focus, and to deliver synergies and benefits across the Group:
- Materials & Characterisation: focuses on applied R&D and commercial customers, enabling the fabrication and characterisation of materials and devices down to the atomic scale
- Research & Discovery: advanced solutions that create unique environments and enable measurements down to the molecular and atomic level, used in fundamental and applied research
- Service & Healthcare: provides customer service and support for our own products and the service, sale and rental of third party healthcare imaging systems
- Continued investment in innovation with R&D spend maintained at 9.8% of revenue
- Appointment of Steve Blair as Senior Independent Director
Ian Barkshire, Chief Executive of Oxford Instruments plc, said:
“Our customers recognise us as key enablers of their strategies. As such, we are enjoying increasingly collaborative commercial relationships, delivering solutions that enable them to succeed at the frontiers of science and within applied R&D and commercial applications.
“Our new reporting structure enhances our focus on the growth drivers of our markets and the evolving demands of our customers and will drive cross-business synergies.
“Our expectations for the current financial year remain unchanged, supported by growth in constant currency orders and order book, the timing of new product introductions, our normal second half seasonal bias and favourable currency effects.
“I am encouraged by the progress we have made in the early stages of implementing the Horizon strategy, providing confidence in the longer term delivery of sustainable revenue growth and margin improvement.”
Enquiries:
Oxford Instruments plc
Tel: 01865 393200
Ian Barkshire, Chief Executive
Gavin Hill, Group Finance Director
MHP Communications
Tel: 020 3128 8100
Rachel Hirst / Luke Briggs