Scientific Digital Imaging

Digital imaging equipment company Scientific Digital Imaging (SDI) has announced an impressive profits leap from £57,000 to £258,000 for the year to April.

Revenues rose 6.4% to £7.2m at Cambridge-based SDI, driven by growth across its range of products, which are used in the astronomy and life sciences sectors. Chief executive and co-founder Philip Atkin explained that last year's sales increase was driven by the recent acquisition of astronomy imaging firms Perseu and Artemis, renamed under the single brand ‘Atik', as well as growing levels of business in Asia, where turnover was lifted 8% to £1.55m.

SDI, which started life as scientific instrument maker Synoptics, makes an array of cameras, microscopes and imaging equipment which is sold worldwide to pharmaceutical firms, research institutes and smaller enterprises. In addition to its core business selling to the life sciences market, following the acquisition of Atik, it also sells cameras and accessories to amateur astronomers. Atkin says future growth is likely to come from acquisitions, noting ‘there are a lot of companies in our field that work in a complementary sector and would stand to benefit from our distribution channels and we are actively pursuing those opportunities’.

House broker finnCap is forecasting 11% growth in sales to £8m this year and earnings of 4p, placing the shares, first recommended by Growth Company Investor at 13.5p, on a lowly prospective p/e of 5.5.

Consistently cash generative and having made profits throughout the recession, SDI is well placed to complete further acquisitions and penetrate high-growth Asian markets. As such, now is the time to top up any existing holdings.