In the first half of 2020, the final dividend for Spirent in 2019 of $20.5 million was paid (first half 2019: $16.7 million) and 2.0 million shares were purchased and placed into the Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT) at a cost of $4.7 million (first half 2019: 3.0 million shares at a cost of $6.1 million).
Other financial highlights include:
Good result despite challenging Q2 environment, order intake growth of 6 per cent.
Revenue up 7 per cent driven by strong uptick in 400G Ethernet test solutions and continued 5G acceleration, particularly in APAC.
Strong orders and revenue growth from our Lifecycle Service Assurance business.
Gross margin improvement as software content grew.
Cost benefit from some deferred discretionary investment into H2.
Material increase in adjusted operating profit to $39.5 million (H1 2019: $20.7 million).
Continued strong cash conversion, cash closed at $221.4 million.
