Filtronic Comtek Plc has been using some of the ú24m proceeds from its flotation last October to snap up real estate and expand existing facilities on both sides of the Atlantic. The Shipley, West Yorkshire-based manufacturer of cellular telephone base station subsystems has acquired freeholds on sites in Maryland and its native Yorkshire. A 75,000 square feet facility in the former is due for completion in December, and a 65,000 square feet building in Yorkshire by February. These projects will impact the figures in the second half of this year, and more significantly, next year. The freehold was also purchased on the company’s existing 95,000 square feet site in Merrick, New Hampshire, and further investment there has resulted in a dedicated engineering group being set up to develop autotune combiners for the cellular industry. The Stewarton facility on Scotland has been revamped to provide an additional 10,000 square feet for the design and manufacturing of ferrite products used in the radio frequency part of cellular base stations. In its first full year figures since flotation on the London Stock Exchange, pre-tax profits leaped 195% to ú3.3m and turnover soared 151% to ú25.7m. The shares floated at 105 pence each and stood yesterday at 323 pence, an eightpenny drop on the day. The results were broadly in line with expectations expressed at the time of flotation. Australia is next on Filtronic’s list, following a contract to supply several thousand devices there executed in double-quick time, says executive chairman David Rhodes in his statement. Manufacturing will start in the second quarter of the current fiscal, which ended on May 31, but no one was available to specify where on that vast empty continent the facility resides. With its markets growing at an extraordinary pace, Rhodes was bullish about a succesful trading period with a particularly strong second half to the current year and beyond. The total recommended dividend is 0.75 pence per share.
