Chip designer Imagination Technologies saw notable increases in both royalty and licensing revenues last year, leading to better than anticipated profits.
Group revenue rose 30% to £127.5m in the year to April 30th from £98.0m the year before, with royalty revenue up 55% and licensing revenue 21% higher.
Adjusted profit before tax jumped 53% to £36.8m from £24.0m, comfortably ahead of the £31.4m predicted by the market. Reported profit before tax was 74% higher to £28.5m from £16.4m the year before.
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At the end of the reporting period the group's cash balance had increased to £66.3m from £49.4m.
On the royalties side, the group racked up significant volume shipments in mobile phone, tablet computers, personal media players, game consoles, TV set-top boxes, digital radio and sat-navs.
The average royalty rate was maintained despite strong growth in the lower margin low-tech mobile phone handset sector.
Switching to the licensing side of the business, the group said is maintained strong activities across the gamut of its intellectual property (IP).
The only fly in the ointment for the group appears to be the continued softness of the digital radio market in the UK, which is hampering top-line growth at Imagination's digital audio broadcasting (DAB) devices division, Pure, but even here the group said sluggishness in the UK is being offset by momentum in overseas growth.
Pure grew revenue to £29.3m from £28.3m the previous year, with 36% of revenue coming from overseas markets.
"Despite the current slow-down in consumer spending, Pure continues to effectively showcase and help to drive key strategic connectivity technologies. We expect to also see a financial improvement in this division over the medium term, driven by international markets and new product opportunities," said Hossein Yassale, Chief Executive Officer of Imagination Technologies.
"Despite the global economic environment, over one million devices are now being shipped with our IP daily. We remain very confident of our continued good progress, given the growing demand across our IP families, the growth in design wins across a widening range of end user markets and the momentum in our partners' chip volume," Yassale added.
The group, in common with many high growth technology stocks, does not pay dividends.
JH
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