Covid continues to impact key market at security and surveillance company
Security and surveillance systems business, Synectics, says stringent Covid-19 measures in China have hit one of its core markets as the company publishes a trading update for its financial year ended 30 November 2022.
Largely due to travel restrictions in China, trading for Synectics remains difficult in casinos and gaming resorts in Asia, with closures or reduced revenues resulting in planned surveillance projects being postponed.
However, the Sheffield-based business adds that in the last few weeks, it has won a contract to provide a surveillance system for a large new-build casino resort in the Philippines, which is expected to be delivered next year.
Synectics’ update notes: “Activity levels in the Oil & Gas market continued to gather momentum in the second half of the year, with a strong trading performance and a solid pipeline of expected orders in 2023.
“In other markets, client-side delays combined with extended lead times has meant trading, while still on a clear recovery path, was slightly weaker than forecast.
“The well-documented difficulties with global supply chains and input price inflation continue to be effectively managed by the company, with gross margins holding up well and trading not being materially affected.”
The business says its second half profit is expected to be higher than in the first half, resulting in an underlying profit for the full year being slightly ahead of market expectations.
And its cash balance as of 30 November 2022 was £4.1m (31 May 2022: £4.2m, 30 November 2021: £4.6m), with undrawn bank facilities of £3m.
