LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Embedded computer boards designer and manufacturer Concurrent Technologies announced an increase in its revenues in its final results on Thursday, to £16.6m from £16.2m year-on-year.
The AIM-traded firm said gross profit in the year ended 31 December was £8.7m, down from £9.0m, while its gross margin slipped to 52.2% from 55.4%.

EBITDA was ahead by 5.8% to £4.6m, and profit before tax was in line with the prior year at £3.0m.

Profit after tax improved to £3.0m from £2.8m.

Concurrent Technologies confirmed a 4.5% increase in the dividend to 2.3p for the year, adding that cash in the business plus deposits was "robust" at £7.7m a year-end, down from £8.4m year-on-year.

On the operational front, Concurrent Technologies said that it introduced "several" new high-performance embedded computer boards and accessory modules during 2018.

Those included products based on the eighth generation 'Intel Xeon' processor for use in VME, 'CompactPCI' and 'OpenVPX' architectures.

As required by many applications, the board said the new products offered support for enhanced security features, and most were suitable for both commercial and harsh environments.

Support for additional third-party software and hardware products and systems was announced to broaden the group's product range, and the company's UK manufacturing line was updated through the addition of a new pick-and-place machine, providing additional production capacity and capability.

"The new fiscal year of 2019 has started with a very strong order book giving the board confidence in the group's performance for the first half of 2019 and for the year as a whole," said Concurrent Technologies chairman Michael Collins.

"New and existing customers continue to require increasing levels of processing performance and additional product features including, in particular, increased security capabilities and encrypted storage.

"The group has and will continue to invest in experienced technical personnel and it is currently recruiting additional senior staff into newly created roles to help broaden its expertise of new technologies and methodologies required for continued growth."

Collins said that investment would ensure that the firm had the capabilities to design the products required for next generation projects.

"By investing in new skills and expertise, the group will be able to support our existing customer base with viable upgrade paths, while also providing products suitable for new applications such as artificial intelligence and deep learning within the vision and surveillance markets, among others."

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