The company, which is pinning its hopes on marine services, said 2003 had seen "good growth and continued strong cashflows".

There was a 9% rise in turnover to GBP 77.2m, total operating profit was up 18% at GBP 15.6m and pretax profit was up 4% at GBP 10.1m before the impairment provision on the cable-layer Nexus which was written down to its scrap value.

Marine