Refinancing costs hit WFEL

MILITARY bridge manufacturer WFEL Holdings saw operating profits dented after being hit by exceptional charges relating to refinancing its borrowings.

Despite a 38% leap in turnover from £27.8m to £38.4m operating profits in the year to December 31 2009 came in at £976,000 compared with £2.6m the previous year.

This was due to £2m in exceptional items, of which £1.6m related to the refinancing in November 2009 with Barclays and Lloyds, and a further £250,000 in legal fees.

After interest costs of £2.69m Stockport-based WFEL, which is owned by Dunedin Capital and counts the US Department of Defense among its customers, made a pre-tax loss of £1.7m, up from £725,000 in 2008.

The company owes its banks £39m and its Dunedin – which bought it in 2006 for £48m  -around £20m.

WFEL, which recently announced a booming order book, said in the accounts for the year ended December 31 2009, that it had restated profits for 2008 after a review of a major contract.

The company said margins had been hit after a customer exercised options to buy more bridges at a lower cost, and that the situation would not affect the figures for the financial year 2009-10.

Recently filed accounts at Companies House reveals that a majority of WFEL sales – £30.5m- are exports to the US.