Marine engineering group Hamworthy Plc posted a 21 percent decline in first-half pretax profit, but raised its interim dividend by 5 percent and said it was confident of meeting full-year targets.

The company, which cut an additional 5 percent of its workforce in the first half, said it saw a steady demand for aftersales and its order book was at 196.3 million pounds ($324.5 million) at September-end.

Hamworthy said it expected orders from the new shipbuilding market to remain subdued in the medium term.

The company raised its interim dividend to 3.20 pence from 3.05 pence.

For the six months ended Sept. 30, the company posted a pretax profit of 10.9 million pounds, compared with 13.8 million pounds a year ago.

Revenue fell 11 percent to 100.4 million pounds.

Shares of the company were up 1.3 percent at 260 pence at 0843 GMT on Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange. ($1=.6049 Pound) (Reporting by Shivani Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)