Revenue and profit up for Petards Group

Petards Group shows revenues for the year grew by over 6% to £12.1m (2010: £11.4m) which gave rise to an operating profit of £335,000, up from £85,000 in 2010.

The company achieved a gross margin of 36.5% which while down slightly on 2010 (37.9%), was in line with our expectations.

Administrative expenses for the year amounted to £4.1m, a reduction of just over 3% on 2010 (£4.2m).

Net financial expenses were higher than the prior year at £120,000 (2010: £32,000). 2010 included a £53,000 foreign exchange gain compared with the £9,000 loss incurred in 2011 and borrowing levels were higher during much of the second half of 2011.

These borrowings were a consequence of the higher working capital caused by the re-scheduling of eyeTrain system shipments resulting from a fire at one of Petards' key suppliers in May 2011.

Profits after tax were £312,000 (2010: £364,000) and included a net tax credit of £97,000. The prior year's tax credit of £311,000 included £222,000 from the recognition of a deferred tax asset in respect of additional tax losses whereas in 2011 the Group did not recognise any such additional deferred tax assets.

At 31 December 2011 80% of the Group's total deferred tax assets of £3.5m remain unrecognised in the balance sheet. The reduction in earnings per share to 4.90p (2010: 5.72p) was also due to the lower deferred tax credit.

At 9:50am:

(LON:PEG) share price was +4p at 28.5p

(LON:WTH) Water Hall Group share price was 0p at 2p

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