LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Wireless telecoms and critical communications technology company Filtronic reported revenue of £7.1m in its first half on Tuesday, down from £7.5m year-on-year.
The AIM-traded firm said its adjusted EBITDA for the six months ended 30 November totalled £0.6m, in line with the prior year, while adjusted operating profit was down to £0.1m from £0.5m.

When including exceptional items, however, it swung to an operating profit of £0.1m from a loss of £0.5m in the first half of the 2020 financial year.

Basic and diluted losses per share improved to 0.03p from 0.86p, while the company reported £0.5m cash received from operations, compared to £2.8m cash used in operating activities a year earlier.

At period end, Fiiltronic's net debt position when including right-of-use property leases had improved to £0.6m, from £0.7m at the start of the period, while net cash excluding such leases was stable at £0.4m.

On the operational front, the company highlighted the appointment of Richard Gibbs as its chief executive officer in the half-year, being sector experience and a "strong" track record of business growth and development.

It was awarded a follow-on order for a two-year defence contract to a tier 1 European defence equipment supplier, to manufacture its advanced radar transmit-receive modules, valued at £4.9m.

The company also noted the adoption of the "next generation" E-band transceiver 'Morpheus' by its lead telecoms original equipment manufacturer customer, to supply into 5G XHaul applications with the production ramp.

Development of the next generation platform had started, with funding provided by the customer.

Initial sales were also recognised of the firm's "best-in-class" new tower top amplifier following the product launch to the public safety market.

Since the half-year ended, the company was also awarded a contract from a new major UK defence customer, for the development and supply of battlefield radio communications hardware, valued at more than £1m.

"Whilst the impact of Covid-19 on the outlook remains uncertain, the fundamentals of the group remain intact with year-on-year growth of EBITDA anticipated for the 2021 financial year, despite the disruption we are seeing in the wider economy," said chairman Reg Gott.

"The broadening of the customer base is the key strategic objective of the group but with travel restrictions constraining commercial engagement this has proved more challenging to achieve.

"Despite this, the group has actively progressed its strategy to develop the channels to market across multiple territories and is currently in the early stages of executing the marketing plan to raise the profile of the company and build the brand in existing and adjacent markets."

Gott said the recent contract win with a new defence OEM customer underlined the technical strength within the company's engineering function, and its ability to deliver technical proposals.

"Over the coming year we will further invest in our teams tasked with top-line growth and new technology development as we execute on our strategic plans to build the business and leverage our recent investments in operational capital and product development."

At 1539 GMT, shares in Filtronic were down 5.88% at 8p.

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