Acquisitions drive strong growth at Acal

10th Apr 2014 13:24

European specialist electronics supplier Acal said it expects to meet expectations with its annual results after its recent acquisitions drove a robust trading performance towards the end of the year.In the Electronics business, which now accounts for 97% of the group's ongoing revenues, sales in the second half ended March 31st were up 22% on the previous year and orders up 25%. Like-for-like (LFL) sales, which exclude acquisitions, were up 4% on the year.The company said that the new financial year started with an order book that was 35% higher than a year ago. One third of this comes from organic growth and includes a number of large orders, while two thirds come from acquisitions.The company said it was pleased with the performance of all its three recent acquisitions, Myrra, YEG and RSG. In particular, the custom electronic magnetic products unit Myrra saw LFL orders in the second half rise 27% with sales up 20%.Chief Executive Nick Jefferies said Myrra "has achieved particularly strong organic growth benefiting from the increased financial strength of being part of Acal, while launching cross-selling initiatives across the group".He added: "Our well established strategy of operating in specialist product areas continues to generate new opportunities for us. We remain focused on delivering organic growth and securing further value enhancing acquisitions."Acal was trading 3.7% higher at 339.6p on Thursday.BC