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LONDON (Alliance News) - Infrastructure services firm Nexus Infrastructure PLC held firm on its interim dividend Tuesday despite profit weakening amid higher costs, as revenue and orders continued to rise.
For the six months ended March, pretax profit narrowed 18% to GBP2.8 million from GBP3.4 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 13% to GBP71.0 million from GBP62.9 million the year before.
Profit performance was hurt by administrative and finance expenses rising to GBP10.2 million from GBP9.5 million the year before.
"We have taken immediate action to review and improve Tamdown's operational efficiency, addressing resource planning issues arising from changes to build programmes and cost pressures," Nexus Chief Executive Officer Mike Morris said.
"TriConnex has performed strongly and growth is anticipated to continue in line with management expectations," Morris continued. "eSmart Networks is scaling up and is delivering against our clearly defined growth plans."
"Our GBP311 million order book across all divisions is seeing substantial growth, up 66% since IPO, and gives us visibility of future revenues," Morris added.
The order book at the end of March stood at GBP311 million, up 33% from GBP234.6 million a year prior. Nexus listed on the junior AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in July 2017 at 185 pence per share. Shares in Nexus were 5.3% higher at 129.98p on Tuesday.
"This, coupled with our strong cash generation, gives us confidence for the future and is reflected in our decision to maintain the interim dividend", Morris continued.
Nexus held its interim dividend at 2.2 pence per share, unchanged on the year prior.
