technotrans is sharing two thirds of its 9.7 million Euros profit with shareholders.

Last week's annual meeting approved a dividend of 88 cents per share, totaling 6.1 million Euros.

After a "challenging but successful" year, chief executive Dirk Engel told shareholders, "We want to share it with you." Some 99.96 per cent of attendees were in favour.

Following from last year's conversion from a German public limited company into a Societas Europaea (SE), the entire supervisory board had to be newly elected, and previous shareholder representatives stood for election again in addition to previous chairman Heinz Harling were Norbert Bröcker, Wolfgang Höper and Dieter Schäfer.

The board of management had earlier reported on "yet another revenue record", and two takeovers. "Hesitant" levels of orders in the auto-related plastics processing industry had hampered business at the start of the year, but "regardless of the current weak phase, we still believe technotrans has huge growth potential based on our high technological expertise and customer centricity in the growth markets that continue to gain momentum, as well as in the markets for laser and machine tools," Engel said.

The adjusted forecast for 2019 envisages revenue around 218-226 million Euros and a profit of 12-16 million Euros. technotrans' medium-term target remains annual revenue of 300 millionEuros, to be achieved through a combination of organic growth and "appropriate" acquisitions.