RWS Holdings shares opened 4.47% lower on Thursday after the group posted results for the year ended 30 September 2020.
The provider of language services and language technology shared a 5.5% fall in adjusted profit before tax to £70.2m.
The RWS Life Sciences division saw increased revenues of 6% to £69.5m, which was a record high thanks to growth in all key areas and particularly linguistic validation services.
Andrew Brode, Chairman of RWS, commented: “The Group has delivered a resilient performance, reflecting its diversified revenue streams across its three specialized divisions, with stronger levels of activity in Life Sciences and Moravia mitigating headwinds in IP Services.
“The Group’s focus on Life Sciences and technology customers, who are thought to be likely beneficiaries in a post Covid-19 world, and the importance to our customers of managing their research and development investments through a strong global patent strategy, puts RWS in a strong position.
“The merger with SDL offers an unrivalled opportunity to consolidate the Group’s world-leading language services offering and provide our extensive blue-chip client base with best in class solutions for all of their language requirements.
“The new financial year has begun positively, slightly ahead of our expectations. We have no net debt and whilst our focus is on integrating SDL, our strong balance sheet places us in pole position to compete for the most attractive acquisition opportunities,” he added.
RWS has proposed 7.25p, which is a 3.6% increase on last year.