Trakm8 warns on first-half profits but still confident for full year

Telematics group Trakm8 warned its first-half profits would be lower than last year's but said it was confident about hitting full year targets line with previous years thanks to a strong weighting to the second half.

The AIM-listed company, which also has taken a £0.5m currency hit to component costs since the Brexit vote, said new orders had been booked at a rate of 37% greater than the same period last year, of which 27% was organic growth.

Recurring revenues also grew to 169,000 units, an increase of 18,000 since the year end.

"In line with previous years, the weighting of group revenue, profits and cash flow is expected to be in favour of the second half," the company said in a statement ahead of its annual shareholder meeting.

"This is due to the fact that reporting units tend to accumulate as the year progresses as well as the timing of deployment of orders won in the first half.

"Half year profitability is expected to be less than the first half of last year, with a stronger second half anticipated fulfilling the growing orders received in the financial year to date."

Trakm8's shares fell as much as 20% in early trading but by late in the afternoon recovered to 209.9p, a fall of 8%.