Imagination Technologies wary of volatile pound
Chipmaker Imagination Technologies has said that trading in its first quarter has been in line with expectations, but admitted that the recent volatility of sterling means that forecasting for the full year has become "difficult".
Imagination Technologies Group
181.25p
16:35 02/11/17
The company said that both licensing and royalty revenues in the period since 1 May has been affected by the strength of sterling, "leading to adverse comparisons with the prior year".
However, the pound has come off a little in recent weeks ahead of the Scottish referendum, falling to a 10-month low versus the dollar.
In a statement on Wednesday, Imagination said: "Given the recent volatility of sterling, it is difficult to predict the likely impact of this factor for the financial year to April 2015. However, we continue to be active in hedging some of our exposure to currency movements."
The company said that trading in the licensing division during the first quarter has been good with "encouraging levels of activity" across all three main internet protocol (IP) product areas and its customer base.
Royalty revenues have been in line with expectations, reflecting growth from some partners as well as the impact from known product transitions with others, it said. Nevertheless, the average royalty rate is still marginally ahead of last year.
"We continue to see good progress being made across our three main IP product families, multimedia, processors and communications," said chief executive Hossein Yassaie.