Significant increase in sales at marine tech firm ‘rooted in many years of hard work’

Maritime surveillance technology firm SRT Marine Systems’ sales soared by more than 375% in the second half of last year as “years of hard work paid off”, its chief executive said today.

The Midsomer Norton-based firm, which makes world-leading maritime surveillance, vessel tracking, monitoring equipment, also reported a pre-tax profit £2.8m for the six months to December 31 against a loss before tax £4.6m last time.

These were achieved on an increase in revenues to £26.2m compared to £5.5m.

Among high points during the period was a $213m contract with the Kuwait Ministry of Interior to deliver an integrated SRT maritime surveillance system.

Adding to the confident mood at the firm were £320m systems under contract and £1.2bn of new prospects.

The results cheers investors, with SRT Marine Systems’ share price rising by 17.4% in early trading to 54p.

SRT CEO Simon Tucker, said: “I am delighted with our operational and financial performance during the first half which is rooted in many years of hard work to build up our technologies, products and global market position.

“As we expected, we have seen solid revenues from both transceivers and systems divisions and look forward to continued growth into H2 and the years ahead.”

Chairman Kevin Finn added: “With a substantial forward systems contract order book of £320m and a new transceiver product to start shipping in the near future, the board is optimistically looking forward to the second half and the years ahead.”

The London Stock Exchange-listed firm’s products are used by individual vessel owners, port authorities, maritime infrastructure owners, coast guards and national security agencies to enhance their maritime domain awareness.

Its profitable transceivers business, which provides marine navigation safety devices, generated revenues of around £4.5m with a gross profit margin of 45% blended across all product segments.

NEXUS, its new VHF/AIS communications system, reached pre-production and type approval certification with initial units released to a selected test set of dealers and users.

This will enable SRT to refine user functionalities before starting  general shipping, which is expected during the second half to its network of around 5,000 distribution partners.