Dialight warns on full-year profits after contract delays

12th Sep 2013 07:35

Delays in the signing of large contracts has forced industrial lighting group Dialight to warn that profits will be flat for the full year.The FTSE 250 group reassured that it had made good progress towards gaining "significant" deals for its obstruction systems products, but has only highlighted one since the June half-year point.However, a trading statement from the LED lighting specialist has warned that management did not expect these contracts to be awarded in time to make much of an impact on the current financial year. This contract delay meant the company had climbed down on its expectations for overall profitability to bring them broadly in line with the prior year, where it made £25m earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). This is around £6m less than house broker Canaccord Genuity's latest forecasts from August 1st, which had been pointing to EBITDA for the full year of £31.1m. The company had announced on that date the completion of a North American sale of an obstruction lighting product for warning of the presence of telecoms towers, saying it was encouraged that its new technology "will drive growth in our Obstruction business in North America and further orders should see a return to growth for this business". Dialight on Thursday continued to insist that the lighting segment continued to grow "very strongly" and stressed that these delays were not resulting in any change in guidance for both the short and long term.Shares in Dialight were down 19.85% at 1,102p at 08:11 on Thursday.OH