Results round-up

Defence-focused technology group Cohort on Monday reported a 40% jump in half year operating profit to £35m as revenue was boosted by a strong performance at its SEA and MASS divisions.

Revenue in the six months to 31 October rose 32% to £49.7m, including £2.4m from Mass (2014: £1.9m), and £1.8m from SEA of £1.8m (2014: £1.1m).

Adjusted earnings per share for increased 29% to 7.11p. Contract wins during the period included a £11.2m deal with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for hearing protection products, a £9.7m contract with the MoD for training and exercise support and a £3m deal for electronic warfare operational support services to an undisclosed overseas customer.

"The closing order book of £140m (30 April 2015; £134m) and recent order wins provide a good underpinning to the second half of the year. We expect, as seen in the last few years, a much stronger performance than in the first half,” said chairman Nick Prest.

"The Strategic Defence and Security Review recently concluded in the UK gives support to existing programmes, such as submarines, in which Cohort is engaged and foresees greater expenditure in areas such as Cyber and Special Forces in respect of which Cohort has strong and relevant capabilities."

The company also expected to complete the initial stage of the acquisition of EID, a Portugal-based supplier of advanced electronics, communications and command and control products for the defence market, by early 2016. The deal EID is projected to deliver a “small but positive contribution to Cohort's 2015/16 financial year with more significant contributions thereafter”, Prest said.

The group raised it interim dividend by 19% to 1.90p.

Pre-natal testing company Premaitha Health reported a slightly larger loss as well as a larger provision for its looming legal case, but has signed up with a major US manufacturing partner.

Premaitha, which has developed the IONA non-invasive pre-natal test for Down's and other genetic syndromes, reported revenues up sixfold to £0.6m in the six months to 30 September from early sales of the test.

Losses before one-off and non-cash items swelled slightly to £2.7m from £2.3m in the same period last year, on gross profits of £0.26m, due to staff recruitment, product development and commercialisation activities.

During the period the AIM-listed company installed the IONA test in four customer laboratories in the UK, Switzerland and Poland, with a fifth in France since the period end, and began processing patient samples in two in-house clinical service facilities in the UK and Chile.

IONA has only so far been approved for free NHS-style reimbursement in Switzerland as a secondary screening test, though management expect other countries to follow suit "in the not too distant future".

After a £8m fundraising in July, there was £6.6m in the bank at period end.

After Nasdaq-listed Illumina sought to bring intellectual property litigation against Premaitha, the company has now increased its provision for anticipated litigation costs to £1.9m, from £0.5m, in order to enable a strong defence against the claims.

Premaitha admitted the case had put off some potential clients but that those customers that had signed up were " seeing through this opportunistic attempt of a non-CE marked competitor to slow us down".

It added: "The legal process will be lengthy but customers and investors can rest assured that we will mount the strongest possible defence - reflected in the increased financial provision - and we remain confident of the strength of our position."

Premaitha also on Monday announced a £5m investment from NYSE-listed Thermo Fisher Scientific, whose products Premaitha uses for the IONA test, via a secured loan that will be repayable between December 2022 and December 2023, in return for £5m of warrants from Premaitha.

Broker Panmure Gordon said although commercial volumes were coming through more slowly versus its forecasts, leading it to therefore trim its forecasts, the Thermo Fisher partnership was "a major vindication" of Premaitha’s position and "raises the stakes and further reinforces our view that Premaitha is well-positioned to capture value".