LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Ultra Electronics Holdings Plc. (ULE.L) reported that its IFRS profit before tax for fiscal year 2018 decreased to 42.6 million pounds from 60.6 million pounds last year.
Profit attributable to owners of the company decreased to 32.38 million pounds or 43.6 pence per share from 48.96 million pounds or 66.1 pence per share in the previous year.
Underlying earnings per share decreased to 109.5 pence from last year's 116.7 pence, reflecting the reduction in profit.
Reported revenue declined 1.1% to 766.7 million pounds from the prior year. This was due to the organic revenue growth of 2.2% being offset by the strengthening of sterling during the year, causing a negative foreign exchange impact of 2.4% from the translation of overseas revenue, and a 0.9% reduction arising from IFRS 15.
The 2018 proposed final dividend of 37.0 pence per share is proposed to be paid on 9 May 2019 to shareholders on the register at 12 April 2019. It implies a total dividend of 51.6 pence, a 4% increase on 2017.
Ultra Electronics announced that John Hirst, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee, has notified the Company of his intention to step down from the Board due to his increasing non-Ultra commitments and his recent appointment as Chair of the British Standards Institution.
The search for a replacement Director has now commenced. John will retire as a member of the Remuneration Committee after the 2019 Annual General Meeting, but will remain on the Board and Chair of the Audit Committee until a replacement has been found.
For 2019, the company targets an increase in own R&D investment to between 4% and 5% of revenue compared with 3.7% last year. The investment programme in the Group's IT infrastructure and systems will be a three to four-year operational expenditure improvement programme at a cost of 5 million pounds per year. These costs are partially offset by an improvement in organic profit and we expect operating margin to remain in the mid-teens range.
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