Kentz profits reach €30.9m

IRISH engineering group Kentz has reported a pre-tax profit of $40.7 million (€30.9m) for 2008 — comfortably ahead of market expectations.

The Clonmel-headquartered business — which is listed on London’s AIM market and focuses on electrical and engineering services to the global oil and gas exploration industry — had previously guided that its figures would be “marginally ahead” of analyst expectations, which had forecast profits of around $38.5m for the year. The company made a pre-tax profit of $34.3m in 2007, meaning that the 2008 figure grew by nearly 19%.

Revenue last year grew by just over 18% to $643.3m and earnings per share shot up by 10% to 25.09c. A final dividend per share of 3.8c has also been recommended, bringing the overall dividend for the year to 5.7c per share.