Acal Plc (ACL.L) announced preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2012 posting a pre-tax profit of 2.7 million pounds, higher than last year.
Earnings per share rose 25% year-over-year 7.1 pence.
Underlying profit before tax was slightly up to 7.2 million pounds from a year ago.
Revenue was down 3% to 257.8 million pounds from the previous year, partly as a result of the discontinuation of non specialist Electronics products as the Group continues to re-align itself as a specialist supplier and partly as a result of the market slowdown in the second half.
This reduction in revenues was offset by a significant increase in gross margins of 1.8 percentage points resulting in reported gross profits being up 4%.
Further, the Board is recommending an increase to the final dividend of 7% to 5.5 pence per share, giving a full year dividend increase of 7% to 8 pence per share. The dividend is payable on 27 July 2012 to shareholders on the register as at 15 June 2012.
Given the continuing difficult economic conditions in Europe and the uncertainty of the timing and pace of a recovery, Acal remains cautious for the year ahead, but well positioned to accelerate growth as and when conditions improve.
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