RWS Holdings PLC (LON:RWS) shares jumped in early trading Tuesday as it hiked its final dividend following an earnings boost from its acquisition of Czech translation service provider Moravia last November.
The AIM 100 localisation and translation services provider reported an adjusted pre-tax profit for the year of £61.8mln, up 43% on the year before, while revenues soared 87% to £306mln.
READ: RWS expects profit to beat market forecasts as Moravia acquisition boosts revenue
The group also reported growth across all its divisions, most notably a 15% increase in operating profit in its Patent Translation & Filing division to £30.9mln and a 15% increase in Life Sciences revenue to £52.3mln.
RWS added that the Moravia acquisition had “significantly enhanced earnings” and contributed to a 22% increase in adjusted earnings per share (EPS) to 17.4p compared to last year.
Moravia itself reported that its adjusted operating profit was up 162% to £12.3mln following a “slower first half”.
As a result of the stronger performance, the group upped its final dividend 15% to 6p per share, taking the total dividend for the year also up 15% to 7.5p.
In its outlook, RWS said it had made “a very good start” to the 2019 financial year with a “strong performance in the first two months, adding that it was underscoring its expectations of delivering “another record year”.
The results mirror a bullish trading update in October when the company said it would beat market expectations due to more favourable foreign exchange rates and a strong performance across the business in the second half.
Andrew Brode, chairman of RWS, said the firm had “a strong platform for taking advantage of the multiple opportunities afforded by our enhanced service offering, extended global presence and the growing markets for our intellectual property, life sciences and localization businesses”.
Shares were up 1.2% at 473p.