Results round-up

Animal pharmaceutical developer and market Eco Animal Health reported its results for the six months to 30 September on Monday, with a 25% increase in revenue to £26.9m.

The AIM-traded company described the period’s performance as strong, with a 43% increase in gross profit to £12.8m and a 46% uplift in adjusted EBITDA to £6.3m.

Pre-tax profit was up 97% at £5.3m, with earnings per share up 61% to 5.68p.

The board declared a 32% increase in its interim dividend to 2.5p.

Cash generation was also strong, leaving net cash at £18.5m at period end, compared to £17m in the prior period.

On the operational front, Eco Animal Health said demand for Aivlosin continued to grow strongly with sales up over 15%, as well as strong overall performance in the US and China.

In the EU, Aivlosin approval for commercial layers with a zero withdrawal period for eggs allowed for the submission of regulatory files to a number of key global egg producing markets.

Thailand approval was received post period end.

“The second half of the year has started well with strong order books,” said executive chairman Peter Lawrence.

“ECO has a sound balance sheet and cash flow generation

“The company continues to invest successfully in its research and product development programme to obtain further marketing authorisations. I look forward with confidence to reporting another set of strong results in 2017.”

Having completed four acquisitions in the first half and a further two post period end to expand its presence in both its fire and water divisions, Marlowe has announced plans to raise around £10m to support its continued acquisition-led growth.

After merging with the new Marlowe Holdings guise of Lord Ashcroft's Shellshock cash shell in April, before beginning an acquisition spree.

Swift, a fire and security systems company, formed the basis of a fire division, to which was added Fire Alarm Fabrication Services in May; before adding Hentland and Titan in the second half of the year.

The company formed a water division through the acquisition of WCS, a provider of integrated water treatment, hygiene, testing and engineering services and H2O, a provider of integrated water treatment, hygiene and testing services.

All acquisitions were said to be performing in line with expectations with encouraging momentum in cross-selling services between fire and water divisions, according to the board.

The board said they felt that the group has the potential to expand due to its "well-developed and attractive" pipeline of opportunities.

For the six months ended 30 September 2016 revenue was £17.7m compared to zero in the six months ended 31 March 2016. Profit before tax was £1.3m up from a loss of £0.1m.

Chief executive Alex Dacre said: "We made good strategic and operational progress in the first six months of our first year of trading as Marlowe plc. We completed four acquisitions, and a further two since the period-end, providing us with a strong platform for growth in our initial target markets of fire protection, security systems and water treatment services.