RWS Holdings has released its financial results for the year ended 30 September on Tuesday. The intellectual property support services provider reported a 17% rise in annual profit. Shares edged up by almost 5% following the results.
RWS is a market leader in life sciences translations and linguistic validation.
The 17% rise in annual profit was driven by the acquisition of language services group Moravia. The acquisition was completed in November 2017. It also enhanced earnings and contributed to a 22% increase in adjusted earnings per share to 17.4p. This figure compares to 14.3p from the previous year.
The final dividend was up 15% from 2017 at 6.0p per share.
Chairman of RWS Holdings, Andrew Brode, commented on the results:
“This has been a remarkable year in which we celebrated our 60th year in business and delivered our 15th year of unbroken growth in revenues, profits and dividends since flotation in November 2003.”
“We were delighted to complete the transformational acquisition of Moravia and receive “Transaction of the Year” at the recent AIM Awards. The Moravia team delivered a very strong second half and we look forward to further growth from this business.”
“The Group is now one of the world’s leading providers of language services, with a strong platform for taking advantage of the multiple opportunities afforded by our enhanced service offering, extended global presence and the growing markets for our intellectual property, life sciences and localization businesses. Backed by a strong balance sheet, we are also well positioned to take advantage of further acquisition opportunities as they arise.”
“We have made a very good start to the new financial year and we look forward to 2019 with confidence.”
At 16:42 GMT today, shares in RWS Holdings plc (LON:RWS) were trading at +4.92%.
Tuesday’s market news also includes 888’s acquisition of All American Poker Network. Elsewhere, Superdry shares dropped ahead of a trading update and MySale shares dropped 50% amid a profit alert.