Mincon revenues rise on increased drilling demand
Mincon Group
€1.11
18:30 22/01/21
Irish drilling specialist Mincon Group saw first-half profits rise by a quarter in the six months leading to 30 June as demand for its services recovered, helping the firm improve margins.
On revenues up 19% to €55.7m thanks to demand reaching levels "not encountered before", pre-tax profits grew 25% to €7.8m, with earnings per share growing 21% to 2.91 cents.
The AIM-listed firm, which distributes a range of hard-rock drilling tools for mining, exploration and horizontal directional drilling as well as geothermal and construction drilling, said that profit margins had continued to recover across the group, climbing to a gross profit margin of 41.8% from the 39.1% seem in 2017.
Cash and equivalents contracted 59.9% to €11.31m following the acquisition of Driconeq, but directors declared an interim dividend of 1.05 euro cents per share.
Chief executive Joe Purcell, said, "We are on a path to remove third-party sales from our line-up where that makes commercial sense, to either manufacture them in our own plants or discontinue the sales.
"Our goal is not revenue growth for its own sake, but sustainable earnings growth, and niche manufacturing to develop defendable intellectual property that underwrites our margins over time," Purcell added.
As of 0900 BST, Mincon shares had gained 1.75% to 145p.