Engineering services provider, Renew, has revealed a strong financial performance for the first six months of the year ended 31 March 2017.

With Group revenue up 9% to £289.4 million (2016; £265.1m) and an improved operating margin of 4.2%, the company has also announced plans to withdraw from the low pressure, small diameter gas pipe replacement market.

The firm said the decision was taken due to losses made in its Forefront Utilities Ltd division.

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In its interim results, Renew said: "At the end of April 2017, the Group decided to withdraw from its loss-making low pressure, small diameter gas pipe replacement activities and as a result has reviewed the carrying value of its investment in that business.

"The Board has determined that a non-cash impairment charge of £5.8m should be made which is included within exceptional items. Our gas operations are now completely focused on medium pressure activities which will result in lower revenue but which have been consistently profitable.

"This restructuring will result in up to £0.5m of exceptional charges relating to redundancy and other costs which will be recorded in the second half of this financial year. Following these actions, the Board expects that its gas business will return to profitability in the financial year ending 30 September 2018."

(LM/MH)