Torday skips payout again

TORDAY & Carlisle, the Newcastle-based engineer, warned yesterday that trading in the second half of the year to December had been 'significantly more difficult than in the first half'. The company said that the final dividend would be passed for the second year running, writes Tom Stevenson.

The shares, which were valued at 115p by a hostile bid in November 1991 from Dowding & Mills, closed unchanged at 23p. Floated at 155p, they reached 185p before a pounds 13.3m loss in 1992 sent them into free-fall.

The profits warning accompanied news that Torday was to sell Elfab, a pressure device manufacturer, for pounds 4.7m.

The company said the disposal was necessary to fund the costs of complying with environmental regulations at a Dutch subsidiary.