There's been a performance u-turn over at supercar light manufacturer Carclo (CAR), with revenues fired up in its two largest divisions. Group turnover rose nearly 11 per cent to £119m with its dominant technical plastics and LED technologies divisions most robust. The latter's Wipac luxury and supercar lighting business was singled out by management as having been a particularly strong performer, while technical plastics is approaching its medium-term target of a 10 per cent underlying operating margin.
The lack of a £25m impairment charge against its Conductive Inkjet Technologies (CIT) venture, which it had to stomach last year, clearly helped the reported numbers. While there was an additional impairment charge of £3m this term in respect of CIT patents and development costs, this was entirely offset by income from UniPixel, which licenses the fine line technology.
Carclo derives roughly three-fifths of its revenue from supplying injection-moulded plastic components, mainly for the medical sector. So the completion of a flagship facility in Taicang, China, for producing medical consumables, is welcome news for the company.
Management has also decided to exit its diagnostic solutions business, and so took a £4.9m impariment charge. House broker Peel Hunt marginally trimmed its adjusted pre-tax profit expectations to £10.2m for the year to March 2017, due to an additional £0.3m pension charge, giving EPS of 11.1p (from £8.8m and 10.1p FY2016).
| CARCLO (CAR) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 159p | MARKET VALUE: | £105m | |
| TOUCH: | 156-159p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 160p | LOW: 105p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.8% | PE RATIO: | 48 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 50p* | NET DEBT: | 75% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 93.3 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 2.40 |
| 2013 | 86.5 | 3.2 | 4.4 | 2.55 |
| 2014 | 97.3 | 4.8 | 5.5 | 2.65 |
| 2015 | 108 | -24.5 | -33.2 | 2.75 |
| 2016 | 119 | 3.9 | 3.3 | 2.85 |
| % change | +11 | - | - | +4 |
Ex-div: 25 Aug Payment: 7 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £20m or 30.6p a share | ||||
