Last year's acquisitions, along with a return to growth within the group's German speaking markets, helped deliver a decent half-year performance for international patent translations specialist, RWS Holdings (RWS). Growth was also helped by a rising number of patent filings as research budgets began to recover.
The patent translations side, which generates 71 per cent of group sales, led the way and sales there rose 11 per cent in the period to £26.1m. And even though the commercial translations side continued to feel the effects of the still weak economic backdrop, sales here grew 4 per cent to £8m. Even the new European Union Patent (EUP) scheme - which is designed to simplify patent applications by reducing the number of languages in which they need to be filed to just English, French and German - is looking like less of a threat to the group than was initially feared. That regime isn't due to come into force until late 2014, with the first patents set to be granted the following year. Helpfully for RWS, the new system will run in parallel with the existing one - which, says management, means few companies are currently interested in making use of it.
Broker Numis Securities expects adjusted full-year pre-tax profit of £20m, giving EPS of 35.8p (from £17.2m/31p in 2012).
RWS HOLDINGS (RWS) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 710p | MARKET VALUE: | £300m | |
| TOUCH: | 700-710p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 710p | LOW: 469p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.5% | PE RATIO: | 21 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 155p* | NET CASH: | £28m | |
| Half-year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 33.7 | 7.83 | 13.9 | 4.00 |
| 2013 | 36.7 | 10.2 | 18.3 | 4.50 |
| % change | +9 | +30 | +32 | +13 |
Ex-div: 26 Jun Payment: 26 Jul *Includes intangible assets of £18.4m, or 43p a share | ||||
