MTI Wireless' profits bolstered following merger

For the year ended 31 December, the mobile phone antenna specialist reported profit before tax of $2.7m, an increase of 8% over the previous year, with revenue climbing by 2% to $35.5m as the military antenna business boomed, growing its top line 26% while amassing a "large" pipeline of opportunities.

The company is also preparing for the widespread adoption of 5G mobile technology and sales of its antennas designed for this market tripled over the course of the year, with chief executive Dov Feiner "confident" that the technology will be the future growth engine of the antenna division.

However, overall antenna revenue decreased by 4% due to the completion of a large project in 2017, while the wireless controller segment grew by 9% as it continues to focus on water management solutions.

Meanwhile, the RFID segment remained flat after four consecutive years of growth, although the newly acquired representation business had a strong year, growing the revenue of its core business in Israel, which now accounts for more than 85% of the representation business, by 17%, driving b overall 4% increase in the unit's revenue.

Zvi Borovitz, chairman of MTI, said: "We believe that the underlying drivers of our business, such as the continued growth in data usage and increasing subscriber numbers, are part of long-term trends that we expect will continue for the foreseeable future. This, together with the requirement for efficient water management, provides us with confidence in both the Company's short and long-term growth prospects."

Earnings per share increased by 14% to 2.70 cents, even following the issuance of shares as consideration for the company's August merger.

At 31 December, the AIM traded company had cash and cash equivalents of $5.4m, up from $3.5m at the same point the year before, while MTI proposed a final dividend of $0.015 per share, down from the $0.02 per share proposed last year.

MTI Wireless Edge's shares were up 2.50% at 20.50p at 1033 GMT.