Lucas Industries Plc is continuing its battle to reduce overheads and concentrate on core businesses, after a drop in profits for the year ending July 31. Pre-tax profits were down 72.8% to UKP22.5m, after UKP23.7m restructuring costs this time and UKP24.4m last time, while turnover fell 4.7% to UKP2,370m. Distribution of a UK pension fund surplus worth UKP90m was offset by an UKP88.4m provision for further restructuring, which resulted in exceptional gains of UKP1.6m. The Applied Technology division, comprising Lucas Management, the former Metier project management software company, saw sales drop 5.7% to UKP250m due to weak demand and competitive pricing policies. This brought pressure on margins. Operating profit here was only UKP600,000 compared with UKP8.8m in 1991. Sales were up in the automative division, but aerospace sales declined, due in part to the weakness of the US dollar. The board is to maintain the proposed dividend at 7.0 pence, despite the fact that the difficult trading conditions experienced this year are still affecting sales in the first half of the current year.
