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(Alliance News) - XP Power Ltd on Tuesday reported a "significantly improved" half year performance, as well as naming its incoming new chief financial officer.
The Singapore-based manufacturer of power controllers swung to a pretax profit of GBP10.9 million for the first six months of 2023, compared with a GBP47.4 million loss the previous year. Diluted earnings per share swung to 38.7 pence from a 180.6p loss.
Revenue increased 30% to GBP160.2 million from GBP123.6 million.
XP Power said this "much improved" trading performance was largely due to the stabilising of supply chain conditions. It said issues with key components' availability were still causing "a level of disruption," but added that it was seeing improvements in this area.
XP Power declared a dividend of 19.0 pence per share for the second quarter, up from 18.0p in the first and bringing the total half-year dividend to 37.0p, unchanged from the prior year.
Chair James Pike said: "We are encouraged by our improving trading performance over the last 12 months but are working hard to drive further progress. While the supply chain picture has improved, some residual issues persist and we have seen some softening of end market demand.
"Despite the short term challenges, the Group continues to invest in its future through ongoing product development and a significant increase in manufacturing capacity in Asia."
XP Power said its strong trading is likely to continue through the rest of 2023, "based on our current momentum and strong order book." It maintained a positive full-year outlook, having said in its 2022 results in February that it was "generally optimistic" about its short-term prospects and expects a "modest" weighting of results towards the second half year.
In the longer term, XP said its "clear strategy and financial framework leave the group well positioned to grow ahead of its end markets, drive further market share gains, improve profitability and deliver strong cash generation."
"We anticipate strong revenue growth over the medium to long term as we take advantage of the robust growth trends across our markets," Pike added.
Also on Tuesday, XP Power said it has hired Matt Webb as its next CFO. Webb previously was CFO at Luceco PLC, and prior to this spent 11 years at Ferguson PLC.
David Stibbs has been serving as interim CFO since Oskar Zahn left XP Power on March 31, having announced his resignation as CFO in late February.
Shares in XP Power were up 5.2% at 2,145.00p in London around midday.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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