Results round-up

Full year profits at animal pharmaceutical company ECO Animal Health jumped as the company benefitted from a weak pound caused by Brexit.

Pre-tax profit increased by 51% to £7.7m and gross profit increased 21% to £21m for the year ending 31 March 2016.

There was a 27% increase in second interim dividend to 3.80p making total dividend for the year up 20% to 5.7p.

The company said for the second successive year ECO achieved sales growth excess of 20%, sales rose by 21% to £47.1m. It said the growth was reflected in the rising market capitalisation of the company that recently exceeded £260m, which placed it among the 60 largest companies traded on AIM.

The US dollar and the Chinese RMB account for approximately 30% of sales followed by the euro at 15% and less than 3% of sales are invoiced in sterling.

The company said that it may have benefited from the weak pound. Following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union on the 24 June, the pound plummeted to record 31 year lows.

Specialist lender Impact Holdings announced preliminary results for the year to 31 March on Friday, swinging to a loss of £0.23m, against last year’s £0.25m profit, amid a legal battle in which it has stopped recognising revenue.

The AIM-traded firm said this equates to a loss per share of 8.6p, down from a profit of 10p per share in the year to 31 March 2015.

Impact claimed to have further reduced its exposure to external debt providers during the year, and reported cash and cash equivalents of £0.3m at year-end, compared with £1.6m.

It had net assets of £5.6m on 31 March, marginally lower than the £5.8m it reported in 2015.

“These results reflect the ongoing complex and long running litigation we are engaged in,” said non-executive chairman Roger Barlow.

“We continue to de-risk the business and reduce our exposure to external debt providers.”