Pipehawk surges after swing to profit

The company, which provides solutions to the highway, automotive, rail and aerospace industries, reported profit before tax of £12,000 for the year ended 30 June, compared with a loss of £0.5m from the year before.

This improvement was driven by a 39% increase in revenue to £6.7m.

QM Systems saw sales increase from £4.1m to approximately £4.5m, with a strong second half showing ensuring that the business is now running at a significantly higher revenue rate and profit margin, Pipehawk said.

Thomson Engineering Design, which was acquired in November 2017, saw slower-than-expected order intake for the UK market due to the delayed release of Network Rail funding for larger infrastructure projects, but achieved sales growth through the expansion of international markets.

Meanwhile, new unit sales from the technology division remained static as the business altered its focus from Europe to the Middle East and Asia ,while Pipehawk said its Aiden business had delivered disappointing results due to Brexit uncertainty.

Since the end of the year, the AIM-traded company has also acquired Wessex Precision Instruments, which it said should return to profitability early due to synergies and cost savings.

Pipehawk chairman Gordon Watt said he remained optimistic about the outlook for the group as each of its divisions are performing well.

Watt said: "The politicians faffing around with Brexit has undeniably had an effect on this year’s results and to some extent continues to do so. However, UK business has generally had to move on, and delayed orders have eventually been placed such that we have had a very reasonable second half of the year."

Pipehawk shares were up 21.95% at 5.00p at 1015 BST.