SHARES in the marine services business James Fisher and Sons have just hit an all-time high.

They peaked at 1650p earlier this month and, although they have fallen back slightly since, they are up 73 per cent in a year and have surged by 16.5 per cent since the EU referendum in June.

Last week the Barrow-based business issued an upbeat trading update and announced that its subsea engineering subsidiary, JFD, had signed a £35m deal to supply saturation diving systems to China.

Following that, the company held a Capital Markets Day in the City of London when group chief executive Nick Henry, chief financial officer Stuart Kilpatrick, JFD chief executive Giovanni Corbetta, and James Fisher Marine Services chief executive Richard Burmeister made presentations.

They told their audience of institutional investors and analysts that the company had been able to increase its dividend for 21 years in a row, while earnings per share had risen in nine of the past 10 years.

The only exception was 2015, when the downturn in the oil and gas sector, a key market for James Fisher, had a detrimental impact on earnings.

The presentation also pointed out that 55 per cent of group revenues come from overseas.

Those revenues have been boosted in sterling terms as the pound the weakened against other major currencies in the wake of the Brexit vote.

The weak pound also helps the company in export markets by making its products more competitive.

It said: “The resilience of James Fisher's marine service strategy, with its focus on specialist niches and on the faster growing regions of the world, is reflected in our recent financial performance.

"The board's outlook for the full year remains unchanged from the time of our half-year results."