e2v will increase R&D and seek to expand in Asia and the US

And the company said it was now focusing on growth that would result in an increase in R&D projects and geographic expansion programmes in Asia and the US. During its half-year ended 30 September, e2v saw revenues move ahead to £105.4m (£96.2m for the same period last year) while pre-tax profit was up from £2.6m to £10.1m. The order book stood at £167m at 30 September (30 September 2009: £134m). Commenting on the results, chief executive Keith Attwood (pictured) said: "e2v has performed strongly in the first half of the financial year ending 31 March 2011 and is significantly ahead of the comparable period last year. Excluding the impact of 'one-off' orders, underlying sales in the period were maintained, as expected, at the same level as last year. In addition, our order book for the coming 12 months has improved by around 50% compared with the position as at 30 September 2009. We have made considerable progress with the implementation of our industrial restructuring programme and this will continue through to completion in 2011. "Given the strength of our current order book, we expect trading to continue at a similar run rate in the second half of this financial year. Our strategic attention is now focused on the growth strategy we presented in July. This will result in an increase in expenditure in the second half on our key R&D projects and geographic expansion programmes in Asia and the US. Cash flow is anticipated to be flat in the second half of this financial year. The Board believes the Group is well positioned for the future." e2v also announced that in order to accommodate a higher than planned level of orders for last time buy products associated with its French CCD wafer fabrication facility in Grenoble, it had decided to defer the closure of the plant until June 2011, adding that it remained "mindful of the importance of completing the remaining activities of this programme at both Lincoln and Grenoble to timetable". The group's restructuring programmes in the UK and France have so far seen a headcount reduction of 83 permanent staff but this had been offset by an increase in temporary workers of 62.