Software Radio Technology (SRT), the specialist marine identification and tracking technology firm which has issued two profits warnings this year, has landed a multi-million pound order from a US customer.
The Midsomer Norton firm said the $6.75m (£4.1m), 12-month order is for its AIS technology, which provides constantly-updated data on the identity and movement of vessels at sea. 
SRT said the customer is a long-standing one focused on a number of regional vessel tracking and maritime domain awareness (MDA) projects.
SRT chief executive Simon Tucker said: “SRT’s products and expertise have combined with our customer’s local knowledge, reputation and capabilities to deliver the vessel tracking solutions these authorities need to fulfil their objectives.
“These are large, long-term projects involving the fitting of tracking devices to thousands of vessels and thus, as with the many other projects we are addressing, they have taken time to reach implementation and rollout.”
The order was announced alongside a pre-close trading update for the year to March 31 which said the company expects to make an annual pre-tax loss of £1.5m on revenues of £6m.
In January SRT warned it would slump to a loss as a result of delays with some contracts.
In its latest update, SRT said it continued its long-term investment programme into new core technologies, derivative platform products and customised products.
It said: “The core distribution network grew during the year, but core business was lower than expected due to general economic conditions and the slower rollout of some of the commercial mandates in the EU and US, which tend to have an effect on the growth rate of non-mandated purchases of AIS.”
Following the latest major order it expects to see further significant orders arising over the next 12 months. But it added: “However, the lumpy and unpredictable nature of this revenue stream will remain a challenge for SRT in terms of stock planning and setting market expectations.”
Mr Tucker admitted the year had been “challenging” and the firm was disappointed with the timing of some of the projects.
“However, on the ground the global marine domain awareness market, across all segments, is providing more opportunities than ever before,” he said. “In a little over a decade AIS has moved from a niche technology for large ships to one that is being integrated into the marine domain to sit alongside radar across multiple applications, and as a result of our continuing investment in technology, product platforms and customer networks, SRT is centrally positioned to benefit from this long term trend.”
Despite his upbeat outlook, SRT’s shares fell in early trading today by 4.27% – or 0.9p – to 19.62p before recovering to close unchanged on the day at 20.5p.
