Chesterfield Special Cylinders Holdings PLC on Tuesday said revenue fell and its loss widened in the first half of its financial year, as it noted that contracts are ‘weighted heavily’ to the second half.
The Sheffield, England-based engineering firm, formerly called Pressure Technologies, said revenue fell 17% to £5.4 million in the six months to the end of March from £6.5 million a year ago.
Pretax loss widened to £2.1 million from £1.5 million. The basis loss per share widened to 5.4 pence from 3.7p a year prior.
The company said lower revenue and profit reflects the phasing of contracts weighted heavily to the second half of the year.
Order intake increased 38% during the period to £14.2 million from £10.3 million, underpinning an increased order book of £18.0 million, up 21% from £14.9 million a year ago.
Defence revenue fell 20% to £4.4 million from £5.5 million, reflecting the phasing of new-build contract milestones and Integrity Management naval deployments, Chesterfield Special added.
The firm said a ‘major contract award’ under HAR1 which was previously expected in the second quarter of 2025 is now expected in the final quarter.
Looking ahead, Chesterfield Special said the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and growing defence budgets supports a strong outlook for submarine and surface ship new-build programmes.
It said Defence revenue expected in the second half is ‘underpinned by a robust order book’ for overseas submarine and surface ship programmes.
The first-half order intake supports the company’s revenue expectations for the second half and a return to full-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation profitability, in line with market expectations, the company said.
The adjusted Ebitda loss widened to £1.3 million during the period from a £700,000 loss a year ago.
The company did not declare an interim dividend, unchanged from the previous year.
‘We are pleased with the progress being made towards our 2028 targets, with recent strategically significant overseas defence contract awards and our first order for large-scale UK hydrogen storage systems,’ said Chief Executive Chris Walters.
Shares in Chesterfield Special Cylinders were down 1.3% at 37.00p in London on Tuesday afternoon.
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