Mincon drops amid 'fitful and flat' trading

Mincon Group's shares dipped on Tuesday despite double-digit profit growth as the company warned that trading since the start of 2019 had been flat.

The hard rock drilling supplier achieved 2018 profit before tax of €16.3m, an increase of 29% against the previous year, as revenue jumped by 21% to €117.7m after 34% growth in Mincon products.

A 22% reduction in third party sales was mainly due to drill pipe supplies now coming from inside the AIM traded company as a result of the acquisition of Driconeq, which was completed in March 2018.

Joseph Purcell, chief executive of Mincon, said: "Trading in the new year to date has been fitful and flat. However we have significant opportunities to realise over the coming months, including the roll out in construction piling and large hammers and the commercialisation of the Greenhammer systems."

Cash and cash equivalents stood at €8.0m at the end of the year, down from €28.2m at the end of 2017, while the board recommended a final dividend of €0.0105 per share bringing the total dividend up €0.0005 from last year to €0.021.

"We plan to review the overheads that we have built up with a view to improving efficiency across the group, and we will be investing in group information technology to give easy worldwide access to and transparency of our inventory for our own team, and for our customers," said Purcell.

Mincon's shares were down 5.02% at 104.00p at 1242 GMT.