Shares in Haynes Publishing (HYNS) were marked up by around a tenth on release of a concise, but very positive trading statement for the year to May 2019. Management expects to report adjusted pre-tax profits around 10 per cent ahead of current market expectations – landing 24 per cent ahead of the comparative 12-month period.
For chairman Eddie Bell, this strong performance was attributable in part to the group’s “continued investment in people and new technologies, which enhances our specialist content and data sets”. The preliminary numbers are due in September.
This encouraging update from Haynes follows on from a robust set of half-year figures to November 2018, which saw revenues edge up 7 per cent to £18.3m. True, pre-tax profits dived from £1.1m to £0.19m, but this reflected the impact of equalising guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs) in the group’s UK defined-benefit scheme.
