5 February – trading update
It is disappointing to have to report that the company has issued a poor trading update for the current financial year which ends on 30 September. Although the company started the year with a strong order book the year to date has been challenging mainly due to the weak oil price which has led to a material reduction in capital spending by oil companies. Although the company remains confident of its medium term opportunities forecasts for the current year have been reduced from £9.0m at the pre-tax level to £6.0m. This compares with £7.6m last year, whilst earnings per share are forecast to decline to 33p from 44.9p. With the possibility of a strong recovery in 2016 we continue to retain our rating of BUY.