Petards warns of 'extremely challenging' trading amid pandemic

11th Feb 2021 08:47

(Sharecast News) - Software developer Petards said on Thursday that trading had continued to be "extremely challenging" as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Petards stated its eyeTrain operations had been particularly impacted, with customer scheduling subject to change and deferral at very short notice, exacerbating the impact on revenue and delays in placement of new customer orders.

The AIM-listed firm stated its defence activities had "a moderately profitable year", but noted that they too were affected by customer agreed supplier delivery schedule changes, with £500,000 of revenue being delayed into 2021 and impacting profitability for 2020.

Petards expects to report group revenues of approximately £13.0m for the year, down from £15.7m a year ago, and a slightly improved result compared to last year's adjusted underlying loss of £300,000.

While the group's year-end order book stood at over £12.0m, of which £10m was currently scheduled for delivery in 2021, Petards said it was presently too early in the year to re-instate market guidance nut stated it was "cautiously hopeful" of improved results in 2021.

As of 0845 GMT, Petards shares were down 2.96% at 13.10p.