Clyde Process Solutions, the AIM-listed industrial energy efficiency group chaired by Jim McColl, has reported a five-fold increase in pre-tax profit to £2m.
Clyde Process Solutions, the AIM-listed industrial energy efficiency group chaired by Jim McColl, has reported a five-fold increase in pre-tax profit to £2m.
It follows last year's transforming reverse takeover of Kansas-based MAC, where Bank of Scotland provided bridge funding for McColl to complete the £43m deal just before the credit crunch set in.
"We are not over-geared, we have sensible long-term debt arrangements, we are not in the position many other companies are in," McColl said.
The chairman yesterday picked up another 200,000 shares in the company at 40p, and has lifted his stake to 16.3% against 10.4% a year ago.
Clyde, which paid its first final dividend this year, announced a maiden interim dividend of 0.75p, helping the shares to jump 20%, though they later lost all the gain to close down 0.5p at 39p. The shares listed last year at 105p.
Alex Stewart, chief executive, commented that big companies as well as AIM stocks had been struggling. "I thing we are perceived quite positively, looking at the last three months' share-price performance against the relevant indices."
The group, which has announced a series of big contracts in the world's major processing industries, admitted it was not immune to the global slowdown, because "the timing and decision-making processes involved in clients' capital investment projects have become changeable".
But it said demand for the commodities such as food, cement and steel produced by key customers continued to grow. "This need for commodities has been evident especially in developing economies such as India and China, where, more recently, a multi-billion-dollar injection of capital has been announced to accelerate both the urbanisation and development of China's infrastructure."
Stewart said the group's materials handling solutions offered energy and environmental benefits which despite the recent oil price dip were still at a premium in energy-intensive process industries.
Food in particular, where the integrated Clyde-MAC business had picked up two big contracts with a major US processor, was a sheltered area, and household products customers included Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser.
Stewart said: "We have a very strong business strategy for the medium to long term, in the short term there is a little bit of uncertainty in terms of timing or orders, but as long as the world keeps turning we are in as good a shape as can be just now."
