Oilfield and de-icing chemicals specialist Zirax is looking for more acquisitions after lifting pre-tax profits 35 per cent to $5.3 million (£2.65 million).

Turnover increased 23 per cent last year to £30.7 million (£15.35 million) at London-based Zirax, which draws 81 per cent of its revenues from Russia and has this year won the contract to provide Moscow City Council with de-icing products for the fifth year in a row. Chief financial officer Fenlon Dunphy says the AIM-quoted company, which accounts in US dollars, succeeded in boosting the revenue share of oil and gas field chemicals, which have lower margins but are deemed to be less cyclical and to have faster growth potential, to more than half of turnover for the first time.

Late last year, Zirax, steered by chief executive officer Valery Androsov, opened a plant at Rosignano in Italy, to supply oilfield process chemicals to North Africa and the Middle East, though the company still expects the ‘booming’ Russian market to be its chief revenue contributor. Now the world’s second-largest supplier of calcium chloride pellets, the company bought Austrian de-icing products Solith, which makes environmentally friendly de-icing products likely to be demanded by future regulatory changes, for an initial £156,000 in January, rising to £2.9 million if Solith meets set performance targets.

Zirax maintains it has enough cash to meet its present needs, but Dunphy says the company is still ‘looking down the acquisition trail. If we need to come to the market for that reason, we shall.’

House broker Hanson Westhouse sees pre-tax profits rising 20 per cent to $6.3 million (£3.15 million) this year on turnover up 40 per cent to $40.3 million. Floated at 15p in 2005, Zirax shares now languish at 10.75p, which seems somewhat grudging, despite dollar exposure and potential Russian risk.

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