By Najat Kantouar
Shares of Petards Group fell 13% on Tuesday after the company said that it will miss full-year market forecasts as it reported a swing to pretax loss due to disappointing performances from rail and defense.
Shares at 1257 GMT were down 0.88 pence at 6.0 pence.
The U.K. developer of advanced security and surveillance systems for the defense industry company said that pretax loss for the six months ended June 30 was 500,000 pounds ($610,500) compared with a profit of GBP101,000 for the same period a year earlier.
Revenue dropped to GBP4.4 million from GBP5.5 million. The order book at June 30 stood at GBP4 million.
The company said gross profit margin fell to 47.3% from 49.3% due to higher material costs from inflation.
Adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization–a company-preferred metric–was GBP59,000 compared with a profit of GBP606,000 a year earlier.
“While the board is confident of an improved performance in second half year, it now believes that it is likely that the outturn for the year will be below current market expectations,” Chairman Raschid Abdullah said without providing any numbers.
Write to Najat Kantouar at [email protected]
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