Whessoe slides as prices are squeezed
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.PROFITS at Whessoe, the engineer based in Darlington, fell 11 per cent last year as customers squeezed prices.
Whessoe makes measuring devices and control equipment. Profit before tax for the year to 30 September declined from pounds 8m to pounds 7.1m.
Turnover advanced to pounds 91m from pounds 79.6m but the operating profit margin slumped from 9.3 per cent to 7.2 per cent. However, Chris Fleetwood, chief executive, said the margins could be rebuilt.
Whessoe has also made a provision for a loss of pounds 910,000 in a business it plans to sell. This would have depressed profits further but was masked by a pension fund credit of a similar size.
The company had two pension schemes but is now only injecting its assets into the larger fund. Whessoe benefited by pounds 977,000.
The company has been trying to sell its project engineering subsidiary for some time. Yesterday it said the negotiations had stretched management resources and that the division's profits suffered as a result.
Taxable profits fell by 10 per cent but earnings per share slumped by a quarter because of a rights issue in February.
The rights money was raised to buy Autronica, a Norwegian instrumentation company. The effect on earnings per share was made worse because Norwegian regulators delayed completion of the deal until July, creating a hiatus when the rights money was not invested in the acquisition.
Despite the fall in profits and earnings, the dividend was raised by 0.2p to 8.2p. The shares, which have fallen from 300p since the rights issue and are now trading well below the 260p rights price, dropped another 27p yesterday to close at 228p.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments