Goodwin PLC, a Stoke-on-Trent-based engineering and manufacturing company, announced it is considering a change to its dividend policy, potentially reverting to distributing up to 38% of post-tax profit plus depreciation and amortisation. This decision comes as the company navigates the volatile situation in the Middle East and follows a special dividend of 532 pence per share paid in November.
The company's shares plunged after it disclosed the loss of two significant contract tenders between October and the announcement date. These tenders included an EUR18 million contract for 20 coastal radar antenna and transceivers in Estonia and a GBP45 million tender with Sellafield, a nuclear site in Cumbria, England. Goodwin expressed surprise at losing the Sellafield tender, given its existing involvement with the project. Despite these setbacks, the company's firm fixed order book stood at £288 million at the end of last month, and overall group trading remains broadly in line with expectations for the financial year ending April 30.
Goodwin's Mechanical Engineering division, which lost the two tenders totalling about £60.6 million, is otherwise trading in line with the first six months of the financial year. The company will release its full-year results in August. Earlier reports indicated forward momentum in its workload, with an August workload of £357 million, up 24% from £287 million at the end of April, and a new memorandum of understanding with Northrop Grumman through its subsidiary Goodwin Steel Castings Ltd.
