SINCLAIR RESEARCH made a profit of £14.03 million in the year to the end of March, an increase of £5.5 million on the £8.55 million of last year and very close to the forecast given when part of the company was sold to institutional investors in February.

Sir Clive Sinclair said of the result: "For a firm only three-and-a-half years old at the time, the figures are encouraging."

Turnover doubled from £27.17 million to £54.53 million, about £1 million for each person employed directly by the company.

Sinclair saw that as "a testament to the standard of people with whom I am so fortunate to work."

Earnings per share were 207 pence against the previous year's 106 pence but a dividend of only one penny is being paid "because the firm is expanding so rapidly that I believe the interests of the shareholders are best served by internal re-investment of the profits."

Sinclair owns 85 percent of Sinclair Research with another 10 percent owned by a group of institutional investors.

Since the company was formed in 1980 it has sold more than one-and-a-half million personal computers throughout the world. In addition it has an agreement with Timex in the U.S. for selling versions of the ZX-81 and Spectrum, for which it receives a royalty.

Sinclair said that because of the price war in the U.S., sales in money terms had been much lower than expected. "Fortunately the U.K. market proved better than anticipated, which partly compensated."

For the future, Sinclair said that the company will continue to expand with new products in new areas. One of those areas is the flat-screen television which has been launched recently.