Pace Micro Technology reports record profits for year ending June |
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Tue, 12 Jul 2005 21:35
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Pace Micro Technology, the premier set-top box manufacturer has announced that its profits for the year 2004 have registered an astounding increase. The firm attributed these profits to the gains made in the markets as well as strict cost controls. The move to acquire markets outside the UK was a contributory factor as well.
Pace said that its profits for the year ending June 4 stood at £8.1m. This as compared to the £5.9m, which the company had raked in a year earlier. This means that Pace's profits are up by 37 percent as compared to those made in the preceding year.
The Saltaire, West Yorkshire-based Company is Europe's largest set-top box manufacturer. It also happens to be the principal supplier of Sky+ personal video recorders. This is a remarkable turnaround considering the fact that as recently as December, the shares had registered an 18 percent dip owing to the company's warning that full-year profits would not be able to meet expectations.
However, in January Pace was able to report a surge in half-year profits, which were significantly higher than a year before. At that time the company had also announced that the sales of digital TV set-top boxes had broken all records. The overall turnover last year stood at £253.3m as compared to £239.9m in the previous year.
As far as the future is concerned, Pace said that it will be looking to consolidate on the gains made by the £300m deal with US cable company Comcast. Pace feels that the US market will be more profitable since the "increasingly mature" UK market appears to be saturated. Pace had supplied around 1 million boxes to the UK market last year. The main buyers were BSkyB, NTL and Telewest.
Sir Michael Bett, chairman of the group summed up the year by acknowledging that there would be an uneven distribution of revenues between the first and second halves of the year, "With first half results expected to be below break-even, second half revenues for the next year are expected to be significantly ahead of first half revenues," he observed.
Pace chief executive John Dyson, was of the opinion that the group needed to be ready to meet the demand in European countries since "over the next five years all countries in Europe are going to go digital." Pace has also entered into agreements with regional players in New Zealand and Holland.
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