TP’s (TPG) order intake rose 8 per cent to £29.5m over the half year to June; nearly twice the specialist engineer’s reported revenues. And the group made good headway on its strategy to achieve greater balance across its two businesses. The larger segment, technology and engineering, signed deals worth £19.8m – down from £23.4m – while the services segment secured orders worth £9.7m, representing 33 per cent of the total – up from 15 per cent.
Greater balance was also evident in the delivery of TP’s largest ever order book at £56.5m – up 31 per cent on the December year-end. True, technology contributed £48.7m – up more than a fifth, and supported by its core submarine offering. But services enjoyed a more than doubling of orders to £7.8m.
Around a quarter of sales are now derived from overseas, management says, while TP’s areas of expertise are also becoming more varied. That's been helped by last year's acquisition of Polaris, which has brought new artificial intelligence capabilities.
The group's strong revenue momentum was sustained further down the income statement, with operating losses narrowing from £1m to £0.7m, and adjusted operating profits rising to £0.9m from £0.1m.
House broker Cenkos expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £1.5m and EPS of 0p for 2018, compared with £0.7m and a loss per share of 0.2p in 2017.
| TP (TPG) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 7.25p | MARKET VALUE: | £55m | |
| TOUCH: | 7-7.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 7.8p | LOW: 5.1p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 4.7p* | NET CASH: | £21m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017** | 10.5 | -0.96 | -0.23 | nil |
| 2018 | 16.0 | -0.80 | -0.09 | nil |
| % change | +52 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £15.5m, or 2p a share.**2017 numbers restated in line with IFRS 15 | ||||
