Results roundup

Shares in Hardide plunged on Monday, after the advanced surface coating technologies developer swung to a loss this year.

In the 12 months to the end of September, the group made a pre-tax loss of £207,000 compared with a £110,000 profit in the corresponding period in 2014, while revenue was flat at £3m, despite increasing 36% year-on-year in the first six months.

The London-listed company attributed the slowdown to an ongoing weakness in worldwide oil and gas markets, which saw companies offering services and products hit by a slump in orders.

Hardide added its projects in the UK and in the US remained on track, though it warned the short-term outlook remained challenging due to the difficult conditions in the oil and gas markets. However, the company sounded more upbeat on its long-term outlook, indicating it was looking to diversify its customer base.

"The continuing low oil price is a significant headwind for some of our key customers and accurately forecasting demand from this sector over the coming year is difficult,” said group chairman Robert Goddard.

“However, if the current conditions persist for the whole of the financial year to September 30, 2016, we expect revenues to be similar to those reported here.”

The Scottish Investment Trust said net asset value per share total return in the twelve months to the end of October was 4%.

The company, which aims to provide investors over the longer term with above-average returns through a diversified portfolio of international equities and to achieve dividend growth ahead of UK inflation, said the share price total return over the same period was 3.7%

Earnings per share were up 38.2%at 15.91p, mainly due to a higher level of income generation from the portfolio but also to a greater use of the company’s borrowings throughout the year, higher special dividends and successful tax reclaims relating to historic overseas dividends.

The board recommended a final dividend of 7.5p per share, up from 7.2p per share last year, which combined with the interim dividend will mean the total regular dividend for the year rose 4.2% to 12.5p, ahead of the main measures of UK inflation.

The board also recommended the payment of a special dividend of 3.5p.

Chairman Douglas McDougall said: “We exist in an investment climate that owes much to the continued availability of cheap credit. Complicating this is the fact that the credibility of the US Federal Reserve has been staked on a desire to 'normalise' interest rate policy while other important central banks continue to discuss further extraordinary stimulus. It is unclear how this will eventually end.

“Regardless of the above uncertainty, we believe that we have a portfolio of sound companies which should work to the long term advantage of our shareholders.”