Flowtech Fluidpower sales slow amid 'negative trends'

Flowtech Fluidpower said its business had shown resilience in a difficult market, though sales growth slowed in the second half.

Group revenue for calendar 2016 of £53.7m was up 19.9% on the prior year, down from the 28% growth in the first half.

Flowtech, which also revealed it had on Friday completed the acquisition of HTL for a fee of up to £1.75m to boost its Power Motion Control division, said it intends to propose a 5% increase in the final dividend and was "committed to ensuring a continued focus on cash generation".

In an update on strategy, the AIM-quoted company said the acquisitive side of its growth strategy had been slowed by "negative trends experienced by many businesses in our marketplace during the second half of 2016", leading it to be more cautious in its pursuit of opportunities towards the end of year.

"However, the acquisition pipeline remains strong and continues to develop; we have several acquisition and product opportunities being actively pursued," it said.

Shares in the company were down 7% to 125.25p after two hours of trading on Monday.