Shares in Hardide (LON:HDD), the provider of advanced surface coating technology, plummeted as it blamed a weak second half on the low oil price.
The firm swung to a pre-tax loss of £207,000 in the year to September from a profit of £110,000 the year before, despite significantly narrowing losses in the first half.
Shares in Hardide, whose coatings are used on oil & gas drilling equipment, dropped around 16.3% to 1p on Monday.
Hardide, which had heralded a record first half, said full-year sales were in line with expectations, though admitted it was “disappointing”.
Sales were broadly flat at £3mln, as client spending in exploration was particularly badly hit.
Chairman Robert Goddard said: “The continuing low oil price is a significant headwind for some of our key customers and accurately forecasting demand from this sector over the coming year is difficult.”
If the oil price remains at its current low level through the next year, 2016 results will be around the same as 2015, Goddard said.
FinnCap said the figures were “a good result” in the wake of the challenging oil & gas market, Hardide’s largest market.
In the longer term, it adds, additional facilities could give greater scale and geographic diversity, meaning the group “has substantial upside”.
But the broker cut its profit forecast for 2016 to £400,000 from £600,000 based on the lower revenues this year.