Half-year Report

RNS Number : 8422L
AB Dynamics PLC
24 April 2018
 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR").  Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

24 April 2018

AB Dynamics plc
("ABD" or the "Group")

Interim Results for the 6 months ended 28 February 2018

AB Dynamics plc (AIM:ABDP), a designer, manufacturer and supplier of advanced testing systems and measurement products to the global automotive industry, is pleased to announce its Interim Results for the six month period to 28 February 2018.   

Financial Highlights

·      Revenues increased 39% to £15.3m (H1 2017: £11.0m)

·      Profit before tax, excluding share option costs, increased 34% to £3.30m (H1 2017: £2.46m)

·      Cash flow from operating activities increased by £4m to £5.3m (H1 2017: £1.3m)

·      Basic EPS increased 86% to 12.35p (H1 2017: 6.65p), Diluted EPS increased 82% to 12.03p (H1 2017: 6.61p)

·      Interim dividend increased 10% to 1.465p per ordinary share (H1 2017: 1.331p)

 

Operational Highlights

·      Very strong demand for Guided Soft Targets

·      Demand for Driving Robots also at an all-time high

·      Good forward order book, providing visibility into FY2019

·      Occupied new state of the art factory and offices at the beginning of the financial year

·      Hopeful of receiving the first order for an Advanced Vehicle Dynamic Simulator

·      Established AB Dynamics (Europe) GmbH, a new operating entity in Germany

 

Tony Best, Chairman of AB Dynamics, commented:

"We are pleased to report on an excellent start to the current financial year based on a strong commercial performance. We have built a good forward order book, both for the remainder of 2018 and into next year which gives us confidence in meeting market expectations.

The Group continues to invest in its people, products and facilities, and we now have 130 employees, an increase of 41% over the last year. We continue to evolve our structure to support a large and growing installed base of equipment and systems across the world, whilst also ensuring we carry on delivering the innovative new products and services that our customers expect. During the period, we established a new operating entity in Germany which will provide improved customer support and a local engineering resource.

The Board is pleased to announce the increased dividend to shareholders of 1.465p per ordinary share that is supported by the strength of our business and future prospects."

For further information please contact:

AB Dynamics plc

Tony Best, Chairman

Rob Hart, Chief Financial Officer

Mat Hubbard, Chief Operating Officer

 

 

01225 860 200

Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad)

Tony Rawlinson

Liam Murray

 

0207 213 0880

Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (Broker)

David Foreman, Phil Davies (Corporate Finance)

Caspar Shand Kydd, Alex Pollen (Sales)

 

0207 894 7000

IFC Advisory (PR)

Tim Metcalfe

Graham Herring

Heather Armstrong

0203 934 6630

 

Overview of AB Dynamics plc

AB Dynamics is a leading designer, manufacturer and provider of advanced testing and measurement products for vehicle suspension, brakes and steering to the global automotive research and development sector.

The Group is headquartered in Bradford on Avon employing approximately 130 staff. AB Dynamics currently supplies all of the top twenty automotive manufacturers, including Honda, Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen, who routinely use the Group's products to test vehicle safety and dynamics.

 

Chairman's Statement

We are pleased to report on an excellent result for the first six months of our financial year ended 28 February 2018. A strong commercial performance has resulted in reported revenue growing by 39% to £15.3million (H1 FY2017: £11.0m) and adjusted profit before tax (excluding non-cash share option charges) increasing by 34% to £3.3m (H1 FY2017: £2.46m). Despite a significant increase in administrative expenses £1.98million (H1 2017: £0.9m) largely due to the reversal of FX gains and reclassification of some engineers to administration, the operating margin at 21.5% is comparable to previous years (H1 2017 21.9%). Net cash at the period end was £12.9 million (H1 FY2017: £14.8 million) with the reduction in net cash being predominately due to planned expenditure on our new factory and offices.

The occupation of our new headquarters occurred at the beginning of the current financial year and this allowed more of our employees to be housed in a single location. Following careful planning, this relocation was completed with the minimum of disruption to the business and we had the pleasure of hosting our Annual General Meeting on the 7th December 2017 in our new conference facility.

The Group has established a strong forward order book and there remain good opportunities for future growth. We have therefore retained the use of our factory in Holt Road, which is now predominately an assembly area and machine shop, and we will continue to lease and to occupy the majority of our existing smaller sites nearby in order to meet our expected capacity needs. We have purchased land adjacent to our new facility and outline planning permission has been received for an additional unit of approximately 3,000m2, similar in size to the new headquarters.

The Group is seeing widespread demand for its products and services, most notably for Guided Soft Targets (GST), which are used by the automotive industry to evaluate and test the many developments in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that are now being considered. The extensive use of the GST has benefited from the approvals obtained from key vehicle safety organisations both in Europe (EuroNCap) and the US (NHTSA) for ADAS testing. Demand for ABD's driving robots has also reached an all-time high.

The Group's future growth continues to be dependent upon the design and development of innovative and sophisticated products that can assist automotive OEMs and test houses in measuring and evaluating new vehicles. The Group continues to invest in and to expand its design and development capabilities to address these needs and a number of exciting new product development programmes are underway. Whilst a number of these developments remain commercially sensitive, we can report that we have made good progress with our Advanced Vehicle Dynamic Simulator, a Driver in Loop Simulator developed in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering, where we are now increasingly hopeful of receiving the first order.

The Group continues to evolve its structure and business processes to support a large and growing installed base of equipment and systems, whilst also ensuring that we do not compromise on our ability to deliver new products and services to customers. During the period the Group established a new operating entity in Germany, AB Dynamics (Europe) GmbH, which will provide enhanced levels of customer support and a local engineering capability.

We are pleased to report that the forward order book provides a sales pipeline for the remainder of this financial year and into the next and we look forward to the full year with confidence.

As previously announced, Tim Rogers stepped down as Chief Executive Officer at the end of February 2018. The recruitment process for his successor is well underway and it is hoped to be able to announce his successor in the summer. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank all our employees, now numbering 130, for their hard work during a very busy first half. The contribution of each and every employee is valued and appreciated and our success is due to their continued commitment and enthusiasm.

We are pleased to announce that the Directors are declaring an interim dividend of 1.465p per ordinary share. The ex-dividend date will be 3 May with a record date of 4 May and payment date 18 May 2018.

 Anthony Best

 Chairman

 23 April 2018

 

AB Dynamics plc

Unaudited consolidated statement of comprehensive income

for the six months ended 28 February 2018

 

 

 

Unaudited 6 months ended 28 February 2018

£

Unaudited 6 months ended 28 February 2017

£

Audited

Year

ended

31 August

2017

               

 

Notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenue

 

15,286,844

11,001,085

24,570,050

Cost of sales

 

(10,021,727)

(7,629,162)

(16,654,153)

 

 

 

 

 

Gross profit

 

5,265,117

3,371,923

7,915,897

Administrative expenses

 

(1,981,218)

(898,286)

(1,985,069)

Fair value (losses) / gains in respect of foreign currency forward contracts

 

 

-

(59,241)

(59,241)

Adjusted Operating profit before Share based payment costs

Share based payment costs

 

Operating Profit

 

3,283,899

 

(366,204)

 

2,917,695

2,414,396

 

(805,649)

 

1,608,747

5,871,587

 

(1,464,817)

 

4,406,770

Net finance income and (costs)

 

18,977

43,010

65,257

 

 

 

 

 

Profit before taxation

 

2,936,672

1,651,757

4,472,027

Income tax expense

 

(548,767)

(430,923)

(569,286)

 

 

 

 

 

Profit after taxation and total comprehensive income for the period

 

 

2,387,905

1,220,834

3,902,741

 

 

 

 

 

Earnings per share-Basic

2

12.35p

6.65p

20.83p

Earnings per share-Diluted                      

2

12.03p

6.61p

20.56p

 

                                                                                     

 

 

AB Dynamics plc

Unaudited consolidated statement of financial position

for the six months ended 28 February 2018

 

 

Unaudited

28 February

2018

£

Unaudited

28 February

2017

£

Audited

31 August

2017

£

 

 

 

 

ASSETS

 

 

 

NON-CURRENT ASSETS

 

 

 

Property, plant and equipment

12,943,824

5,181,045

10,464,904

Deferred tax assets

208,646

-

148,140

 

 

 

 

 

13,152,470

5,181,045

10,613,044

 

 

 

 

CURRENT ASSETS

 

 

 

Inventories

6,878,530

3,780,447

4,959,435

Trade receivables

6,251,428

3,121,141

7,115,351

Other receivables, deposits and prepayments

1,614,098

1,285,884

1,536,134

Amount owing by contract customers

1,012,889

1,205,473

1,675,508

Derivative financial instruments

-

-

-

Taxation

-

-

-

Cash and cash equivalents

12,895,939

14,776,087

9,619,345

 

 

 

 

 

28,652,884

24,169,032

24,905,773

 

 

 

 

TOTAL ASSETS

41,805,354

29,350,077

35,518,817

 

 

 

 

EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

 

 

 

Called up share capital

193,875

191,119

191,119

Share premium account

9,668,311

8,579,264

8,579,265

Reconstruction reserve

(11,284,500)

(11,284,500)

(11,284,500)

Merger relief reserve

11,390,000

11,390,000

11,390,000

Retained earnings

21,741,167

16,347,092

19,370,938

 

 

 

 

TOTAL EQUITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO OWNERS OF

THE COMPANY AND TOTAL EQUITY

 

31,708,853

 

25,222,975

 

28,246,822

 

 

 

 

NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES

 

 

 

Deferred tax liabilities

-

53,648

-

 

 

 

 

CURRENT LIABILITIES

 

 

 

Trade and other payables

9,461,622

3,856,571

6,951,803

Derivative financial instrument

-

58,165

-

Provision for taxation

634,879

158,718

320,192

 

 

 

 

 

10,096,501

4,073,454

7,271,995

 

 

 

 

TOTAL LIABILITIES

10,096,501

4,127,102

7,271,995

 

 

 

 

TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

41,805,354

29,350,077

35,518,817

                                                                                                                                                                                      

 

 

AB Dynamics plc

Unaudited statement of changes in equity

for the six months ended 28 February 2018

 

 

Share capital

Share premium

Merger relief reserve

Reconstruction reserve

Retained profits

Total equity

 

£

 

£

£

£

£

£

At 31 August 2017

191,119

8,579,265

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

19,370,938

28,246,822

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share based payment expense

-

-

-

-

366,204

366,204

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Profit after taxation and Total comprehensive Income for the financial year

-

-

-

-

2,387,905

2,387,905

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dividend paid

-

-

-

-

(383,880)

(383,880)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue of shares, net of share

issue costs

2,756

1,089,046

-

-

-

1,091,802

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 28 February 2018

193,875

9,668,311

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

21,741,167

31,708,853

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 31 August 2016

177,646

2,590,267

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

14,643,035

17,516,448

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share based payment Expense

-

-

-

-

805,649

805,649

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Profit after taxation and

Total comprehensive

Income for the financial year

-

-

-

-

1,220,834

1,220,834

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dividend paid

 

 

 

 

(322,426)

(322,426)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue of shares, net of share issue costs

13,473

5,988,997

-

-

-

6,002,470

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 28 February 2017

191,119

8,579,264

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

16,347,092

25,222,975

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 31 August 2016

177,646

2,590,267

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

14,643,035

17,516,448

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change in accounting policy

-

-

-

-

(62,850)

(62,850)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 31 August 2016 as restated

177,646

2,590,267

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

14,580,185

17,453,598

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share based payment expense

-

-

-

-

1,464,817

1,464,817

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Profit after taxation and

Total comprehensive

Income for the financial year

-

-

-

-

3,902,741

3,902,741

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tax impact of exercised Share Options

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dividend paid

 

 

 

 

(576,805)

(576,805)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue of shares, net of share issue costs

 

13,473

5,988,998

-

-

-

6,002,471

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 31 August 2017

191,119

8,579,265

11,390,000

(11,284,500)

19,370,938

28,246,822

                                                                    

AB Dynamics plc

Unaudited cash flow statement

for the six months ended 28 February 2018

 

 

Unaudited

6 months

Ended

28 February

2018

Unaudited

6 months

Ended

28 February

2017

Audited Year

Ended

31 August

2017

 

£

£

£

 

 

 

 

Cash flow from operating activities

Profit before taxation

2,936,672

1,651,757

4,472,027

 

 

 

 

Adjustments for: -

Change in accounting policy

 

-

 

-

 

(78,562)

Depreciation of property, plant and equipment

214,245

125,533

266,856

Loss on sale of property, plant and equipment

6,750

4,242

4,243

Finance income and costs

-

(32,270)

-

Interest income

(18,977)

(43,010)

(65,257)

Share based payment

366,204

805,649

1,464,817

 

 

 

 

Operating cash flows, before working capital changes

3,504,894

2,511,901

6,064,124

 

 

 

 

Decrease/(increase) in inventories

(1,919,095)

(588,804)

(1,767,793)

Decrease/(increase) in trade and other receivables

1,448,578

(718,061)

(5,432,557)

(Decrease)/increase in other payables

2,509,819

247,710

3,342,941

Fair value loss/(gain) on derivative instruments

-

-

(90,434)

 

 

 

 

Cash flow (used in) / from operations

5,544,196

1,452,746

2,116,281

Interest received

18,977

43,010

65,257

Income tax paid

(294,586)

(188,513)

(351,476)

 

 

 

 

Net cash flow (used in) / from operating activities

5,268,587

1,307,243

1,830,062

 

 

 

 

Cash flow used in investing activities

 

 

 

Purchase of property, plant and equipment

(2,699,915)

(2,615,723)

(8,040,906)

Sale of property, plant and equipment

-

-

-

 

 

 

 

Net cash flow used in investing activities

(2,699,915)

(2,615,723)

(8,040,906)

 

 

 

 

Cash flow used in financing activities

 

 

 

Dividends paid

(383,880)

(322,426)

(576,805)

Proceeds from issue of share capital, net of share issue costs

1,091,802

6,002,470

6,002,471

 

 

 

 

Net cash flow from/(used in) financing activities

707,922

5,680,044

5,425,666

 

 

 

 

Net (decrease) / increase in cash and cash equivalents

3,276,594

4,371,564

(785,178)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

9,619,345

10,404,523

10,404,523

 

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

12,895,939

14,776,087

9,619,345

 

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                      

AB Dynamics plc

Notes to the unaudited interim report

for the six months ended 28 February 2018

 

 

1.         Basis of preparation
 

The Company is a public limited company limited by shares and incorporated under the UK Companies Act.  The Company is domiciled in the United Kingdom and the registered office and principal place of business is Middleton Drive, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, BA15 1GB.

 

The principal activity is the specialised area of design and manufacture of test equipment for vehicle suspension, steering, noise and vibration. The company also offers a range of services which include analysis, design, prototype manufacture, testing and development.

 

The interim financial information has been prepared in accordance with the basis of the accounting policies set out in the annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 August 2017, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted for use by the European Union. The interim accounts are unaudited and do not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006.

The same accounting policies, presentation and methods of computation have been followed in this unaudited interim financial information as those which were applied in the preparation of the Group's annual statements for the year ended 31 August 2017, upon which the auditors issued an unqualified opinion, and which have been delivered to the registrar of companies.

The interim financial information has been drawn up using accounting policies and presentation expected to be adopted in the Group's full financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2018. Any new standards that will be adopted in full for the first time in the year-end financial statements did not have a material impact on this interim financial information.

The interim financial information for the six months ended 28 February 2018 was approved by the Board on 23 April 2018.

The Directors are declaring an interim dividend of 1.465p per ordinary share. The ex-dividend date will be 3 May, the record date 4 May and the payment date 18 May 2018.

 

2.         Earnings per share

The calculation of earnings per share is based on the following earnings and number of shares:

 

 

Unaudited

6 months

ended

28 February

2018

Unaudited

6 months

ended

28 February

2017

Audited

Year

Ended

31 August

2017

 

£

£

£

 

 

 

 

Profit after tax attributable to owners of the Company

2,387,905

1,220,834

3,902,741

 

 

 

 

Weighted average number of shares

 

 

 

Basic

19,338,217

18,351,725

18,734,960

Diluted

19,853,038

18,472,797

18,982,585

 

 

 

 

Earnings per share

 

 

 

Basic

12.35 pence

6.65 pence

20.83 pence

Diluted

12.03 pence

6.61 pence

20.56 pence

 

 

3.            Analysis of revenue by geographical area and major customers

 

Revenues attributable to individual foreign countries are as follows:

 

 

 

Unaudited

6 months

ended

 February 2018

 

 

Unaudited

6 months

ended

February 2017

 

 

Audited

Year

ended

 August 2017

 

£

 

£

 

£

 

United Kingdom

 

478,935

 

 

405,771

 

 

1,174,643

Rest of the European Union

3,864,540

 

2,908,371

 

8,965,899

North America

2,022,911

 

2,449,020

 

3,299,671

Rest of the World

8,920,458

 

5,237,923

 

11,129,837

 

15,286,844

 

11,001,085

 

24,570,050

 

There were no material non-current assets located outside the United Kingdom.

 

Revenues are derived from the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenue from sale of goods

14,152,302

 

8,844,552

 

20,766,061

Revenue from construction contracts

1,134,542

 

2,156,533

 

3,803,989

 

15,286,844

 

11,001,085

 

24,570,050

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
IR UOUNRWBASUAR

Companies

AB Dynamics (ABDP)
UK 100

Latest directors dealings