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Respiratory protection equipment maker Avon Rubber hiked its dividend and said it remained 'confident' of achieving its expectations for the current financial year even as half-yearly profit halved as asset writedowns weighed.
For the six months ended 31 March, pre-tax profit fell to £1.7m from £3.4m on-year, while revenue rose 9.5% to £94.7m.
One-off exit costs related to the company's decision to move out of the fire self contained breathing apparatus market resulted in development cost impairment of £3.8m, inventory write-downs £1.4m and receivables write offs of £0.2m.
The company declared an interim dividend of 9.02p per ordinary share, an increase of 30% on the 2019 interim dividend.
Both Avon Protection and milkrite | InterPuls had continued to operate and trade in line with expectations in the second half to date, the company said.
'The strong opening order book of £115.5m provides good visibility as we enter the second half of the financial year and the board remains confident in delivering its current year expectations,' it added.
At 8:19am: (LON:AVON) Avon Rubber PLC share price was +52.5p at 2882.5p