Hamworthy

Life should be getting noticeably less tough for Hamworthy, the Dorset-based designer of innovative gas handling, pumping and water management systems for merchant and cruise ships and for the onshore and offshore oil and gas sectors.

After an 8% profits fall to £20.6m last year, on turnover down 15% to £214.3m, as well as a 44% fall in new orders to £99m, the company, an international leader in its field, is winning juicy new contracts around the world and is also expanding in the major Far East market. Chief executive Joe Oatley has signaled a new strategy of moving away from dependence on a currently uncertain new build shipping market and expanding into related markets. Among contracts this approach is winning is a deal to supply Daewoo Shipbuilding of Korea with fleet equipment, said by the company to be worth ‘in excess of £5m’.

Despite last year's difficult conditions, Hamworthy remained strongly cash generative, underpinning a 5% increase in the total dividend to 9.17p. The company still has ambitious international expansion plans, having secured the land for a new manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China and a deal to supply engine room pumps and pump room systems for five product carriers to Indonesian state-owned oil and gas group Pertamina.

Meanwhile, Hamworthy is bidding for contracts in Brazil to supply offshore vessels, oil tankers and gas carriers. Shares in Hamworthy, which have fluctuated between 52-week highs and lows of 325p and 221p, are worth a punt for risk-friendly long-term investors.