Pace sees strong revenue growth from USA

PACE has told shareholders that it has made an “encouraging” start to the year with strong revenue growth driven by demand from the USA.

The Saltaire-based set-top box maker and pay TV and broadband technology provider issued an interim management statement this morning ahead of its AGM today when chairman, former Asda chief executive Allan Leighton, will deliver a confident message about the business.

“I am pleased to report that Pace has made an encouraging start to the new financial year with strong revenue growth in the period, in line with our expectations. We expect revenue for H1 2013 will be ahead of H1 2012, driven largely by continuing demand for media server products in North America and the comparative half being impacted by hard disk drive supply disruption.

“Profitability is in line with our expectations and the robust cash flow generation has continued,” he said today, looking at trading in the 16 weeks from January 1 to April 23.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Mr Leighton said that Pace expects revenues to be broadly in line with last year while the operating margin is expected to be 7.5% while strong cash flow will continue so the group expects to be in a positive cash position by the end of the year.

The group will be announcing its half year results for the period ending June 30 on July 30.