Marine group provides trading update following year-end change
OTAQ, the Lancaster-based marine technology group, announced on December 15, 2022, that it had changed its year end to December 31.
It has today (April 24) provided a pre-close trading update ahead of its preliminary results for the nine months to December 31, 2022, which are expected to be announced on or before May 19, 2023.
The Company reported revenues of £2m for the first six months of the period to September 2022 and an adjusted EBITDA of £13,000.
Trading in the seasonally quieter final three months of the year was broadly in line with management’s expectations and total revenues for the nine months to December 31, 2022, are expected to be approximately £2.6m with an adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately £0.3m.
The board said trading for the first quarter of the new year is in line with management’s expectations, with the second quarter on track to be ahead of plan given the group’s current order intake.
The group’s healthy order book, particularly in the offshore division – previously reported as the Offshore and Connectors divisions – has grown through the group’s continued investment in new products and market development activities, funded in part by the successful share placing in November 2022.
The Aquaculture division is also benefitting from improved customer acquisition in its Chilean territory and from the development of new products including the recent launch of its water quality monitoring solution, which has already secured its first customers.
The group continues to carefully manage its cash resources, particularly in light of the well-documented inflationary pressures and supply chain challenges in the wider economy and, as at the March 31, 2023, the company had cash balances of £1.7m.
The board said it remains confident of a successful performance in the remainder of the year and will provide a further update at the time of the preliminary results.
