Oxford Instruments shares jump as company to revamp ‘overly complex’ business structure
British microscope maker Oxford Instruments said it would change its “overly complex” business structure after its profit fell, despite revenue growth.
Shares in the company jumped eight per cent in early deals after the announcement.
The London-listed firm reported revenue of £470.4m in the 12 months ending March 31, 2024, a nine per cent increase on the previous period due to increased demand for its analysis tools.
However, the firm’s pre-tax profit fell from £73.5m to £71.3m, which CEO Richard Tyson said was due to a decision to stop trading in some parts of China.
He added: “We have rebalanced our positions in regional markets in the face of geopolitical shifts, focusing our resources on non-sensitive areas in China, and successfully growing revenue and orders in Europe and elsewhere in Asia.
“We have continued to make organic investments to support our future growth, with our state-of-the-art compound semiconductor facility now operational.
“Underlying order intake has remained robust, with a positive book to bill even though we had stronger growth in the second half, and the orderbook gives us good visibility into the year ahead.”
In an effort to increase its profit margins Oxford Instruments will split its operations into two new divisions – Imaging and Analysis and Advanced Technologies.
Tyson said the move would allow the business to take a more targeted approach to running each section and simplify operations.
The company expects revenue to be split 70/30 between the two divisions, with its Imaging and Analysis products likely to see the highest sales.
The company also announced a deal to buy anoindentation instrument developer Femtotools for up to 24m swiss Francs (£27m)
In the report published alongside its half year results, Oxford Instruments said: “With significant overlap between business units and markets, the structure of Oxford Instruments had become overly complex over a number of years, making it confusing for stakeholders to understand and leading to duplication of processes internally.
“Consolidating our eight business units and six previous end markets into just two divisions and three core markets, supported by a simplified customer-facing regional structure, will drive efficiencies and operational gearing, and provide greater transparency of Oxford Instruments as an investment proposition.”