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Gooch & Housego PLC on Tuesday said the medium-term outlook remains positive despite a subdued performance in the first half of the financial year. Shares in Gooch & Housego fell 4.7% to 547.00 pence in London on Tuesday. The Somerset, England-based photonics components and systems manufacturer said pretax profit in the six months ending March 31 fell to £0.3 million from £3.6 million. Revenue edged down to £63.6 million from £64.5 million reflecting customer destocking in industrial and medical laser markets. Gooch & Housego expects volumes to recover in the early part of financial 2025. Gooch & Housego also raised the interim dividend by 2.1% to 4.9p from 4.8p. Partially offsetting the reductions in semiconductors and industrial lasers, revenue in telecoms markets and in particular the subsea data cable market grew, the company added. Gooch & Housego said the order book for continuing activities grew marginally through the first half of the year to finish at £115.8 million at the end of March, compared to £115.3 million at the end of September. Gooch & Housego said the pipeline for future orders is ‘healthy.’ ‘We expect to secure material new orders for our super polished components used in ring laser gyros, additional new optical systems contract awards as well as our first significant production order for our newly created Life Sciences centre of excellence in our Rochester facility. ‘More generally our customers in the industrial laser and semiconductor market are advising us that they expect to pass down to us increasing demand from around the end of this calendar year as they finally work through their excess inventory holdings and satisfy growing demand from their own end markets,’ the company said in a statement. Chief Executive Charlie Peppiatt said: ‘Despite the reduced demand in our industrial and medical laser markets persisting longer than expected, the medium term outlook remains positive underpinned by a strong order book and healthy pipeline with the group well positioned to benefit from increased demand levels as a result of operational and supply chain improvements.’ Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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