Renishaw's first half profit and revenue fall

30th Jan 2014 07:51

- First half profit and revenue drop- Increase in investments of products and expansion - Trading expected to improve in second halfUK engineering company Renishaw reported a decline in first half revenue and profit, reflecting tough comparators a year earlier.Revenue came to £163m in the six months through December 2013, compared to £174m the prior year. The group said the fall was due to the comparison of 'exceptionally high revenue' in the first half of 2012 driven by strong performance in the Far East.Pre-tax profit dropped to £25.6m from £42.2m. Earnings per share were 29.5p, compared with an adjusted and restated 46.7p last year.Nevertheless, the firm experienced strong demand for its 3D additive manufacturing, measurement automation, encoder and spectroscopy products.During the period, the firm expanded its facilities in Germany and released new products including Sprint high speed contact scanning system for machine tools. Capital expenditure came to £19.5m.Net cash balances were £13.4m at the end of the period, compared with £12.6m in 2012. In November, the company announced Autodesk Development B.V agreed to buy its software business Delcam for a total consideration of £32m. Renishaw said proceeds of the business will be used to support future investments in the business. "Whilst the group faced tough financial comparators for the first half of this financial year and sterling has strengthened in recent months, we are expecting an improvement in trading activities and revenue in the second half," the group said. "With our continuing investment in our business sectors, we remain confident for the longer term prospects for the group."RD