Oxford Instruments swings to profit

Oxford Instruments swung to a profit in the year to the end of March as cost savings helped to offset a decline in revenue.

The group, which provides high technology tools and systems for industry and research, reported a pre-tax profit of £13.1m compared to a loss of £9.6m the year before. Meanwhile, adjusted pre-tax profit was up 3.6% to £37m.

Although the company saw a 4.9% drop in revenue to £361.6m, it said the cost reduction programme instigated in 2015 has delivered the expected savings and enabled it to improve profitability despite the constrained market backdrop.

Oxford Instruments maintained its final dividend at last year’s level, resulting in a total dividend for the year of 13p.

Chief executive Ian Barkshire said: "I am excited about the opportunity to capture the long-term structural growth in demand for high performance nanotechnology tools. Our focus on new product development, customer service and cost optimisation gives us confidence that we are on track to make progress in the year ahead.

"We will continue to invest in growing the business in our core markets of physical and material science, and exploiting convergence to expand into life sciences."

Peel Hunt said: “We will now be watching closely as a new team takes control of the business (since October we have seen a change in FD, CEO and Chairman) but these results and the cost savings delivered look a positive start to us.”

At 0817 BST, shares were up 3.6% to 684p.