Listed industrial firm reinstates dividend payments after successful year
Heckmondwike-based 600 Group, a distributor, designer and manufacturer of industrial products, has reported a double digit increase in revenues in a “robust” and “successful” year in which it re-instated dividend payments.
Announcing its annual results for the year ended 31 March, the AIM-listed firm saw revenues increase to $66m, up from $58.7m in 2017. It pre-tax profits dipped to $3.8m from $4m the previous year.
The board have decided to change the currency reporting to US dollars because two thirds of its revenues are in dollars and a “great proportion of expenditure” is either in dollars or currency tied to the dollar.
During the year, it bought out its UK pension liabilities for $266m and reintroduced dividends, with a maiden payment of 0.5p recommended to shareholders.
Its ProPhotonix shares sold for $2m, generating $1.3m profit, and it completed an equity raise of $1.4m in September 2017. This eliminated UK working capital borrowing and introduced new institutional shareholders.
The 600 Group said that order books were stable and industry forecasts were improving. Its UK base is undergoing a restructure “to reduce capex requirement and improve margins further,” it said.
Paul Dupee, executive chairman of The 600 Group, said: “This has been a very successful year for the company. Throughout the year we have been working with the pension trustee to negotiate the possible buy out of the group pension scheme, and I’m delighted to report that we have now achieved this. The consequences to the Group are significant as we are released from the financial and regulatory constraints related to the scheme, and will be able to use the net proceeds to reduce Group debt.
“The efforts of the last few years can be seen across all our divisions resulting in double-digit growth in both revenues and earnings (before special items). Looking forward, we expect to improve even further as we achieve cost savings in our UK operations and begin to see the benefits of the improved range of machines and engineering solutions being developed throughout the Group.
“Financially, we are more robust because of the steps we took last year to raise additional working capital and realise our investment in ProPhotonix.
“We go into this new financial year with great confidence and I am delighted that this has given us the opportunity to reinstate paying a dividend to shareholders for the first time in many years.”
