Recovery gathers pace at manufacturer as it doubles sales in second half

MANUFACTURER Filtronic said it is “continuing its recovery” after a strong second half performance.

Its shares have doubled in three months, returning to its level a year ago before poor trading saw its market value drop below £10m. The company is now valued at nearly £25m.

In a trading update for the year to May 31 the Yeadon-based business, which designs and manufactures products for the wireless telecoms infrastructure market, said revenue for the financial year was £13.6m (2015: £17.5m).This was due to a strong sequential second half performance with six-month revenue of £9.1m, which doubled its first-half performance.

The group had net debt at the year-end of £300,000 and said that Barclays Bank has agreed a temporary increase of its invoice discounting facility from £2m to £4m to support its current working capital requirements as revenues grow.

Filtronic also said it has an invoice discounting facility in the US with Faunus Group International Inc of $3.5m, which it said will be sufficient to finance the period of sales revenue growth it is currently experiencing.

Rob Smith, CEO of Filtronic, said: “The prospects for both integrated ultra-wide band antennas and E-band transceivers continue to be encouraging and the growing pipeline of enquiries represents a considerable opportunity for the business to continue its recovery toward delivering sustainable growth.”

The company’s results for the financial year ended May 31 2016 will be announced on August 2.