Backed here at 139.5p a little over a year ago, Amiad, the producer and supplier of water filters and filtration systems, is enjoying heady growth in all its main territories.
Supplying products for the industrial, municipal and irrigation markets, the company is reaping the benefits of increasing global investment in water treatment and filtration systems that improve clean water supply and availability.
Interim results for the half to June proved very strong, with pre-tax profits flowing 47% higher to US$5.4m (£3m), as turnover gushed 44% north to $39.5m (£22.1m).
Strongly cash generative, Amiad closed the half with increased cash balances of $6.5m, increased from $4.1m at the year-end.
Highlights of the half included strong orders from the industrial and municipal sectors across Europe, Australia and North America, while East Asia provided a growth hot spot.
Amiad also continued to make inroads into the industrial sectors of India and China, while projects in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine continued to progress well.
More recently, the company has secured contracts in new territories including Chile, where its automatic self-cleaning screen filters have been selected for use in the mining industry, as well as the Philippines, for a project using microfiber technology for use in municipal drinking water.
With management predicting ‘significant’ growth for 2008 versus 2007, analysts are now looking for growth in earnings per share from last year’s 12.7p to 17.7p, placing the shares on a prospective multiple of 12.6.
We still feel that is a rather modest rating for a business with considerable balance sheet strength exhibiting such growth rates. Keep buying.
