14th Nov 2013 11:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Infrastructure products group Hill & Smith Holdings PLC Thursday said net debt has declined to GBP100.5 million from GBP102.5 million in June, as the business made significant progress since the first half.
In an interim management statement for the period July 1 to November 13, H&S said trading at its road division was ahead of 2012, with "encouraging" performances in its newer markets of Scandinavia, Australia and India, where it has been supplying road restraint systems.
The division also supplies products and services such as permanent and temporary road safety barriers, street lighting columns and temporary car parks.
Hill & Smith said the performance of a number of its UK Roads businesses was ahead of 2012 as government road programmes continued to provide a solid pipeline.
Trading in the utilities division reflected previously reported trends, the firm said, with a robust performance overall in the US, offset by a reduced order book for pipe supports for delivery in 2013.
The division supplies products such as pipe supports for the power and liquid natural gas markets and energy grid components.
Order intake for October was encouraging across all geographies for the utilities division, with record orders taken from the company's new facility in India.
"We expect our Indian facility to continue to gain momentum in the final quarter as a result of the buoyant demand for energy in emerging markets," it said.
Galvanizing services, which provides zinc and other coatings for a wide range of products, including fencing and lighting columns, saw overall production volumes increase 10% on last year.
The recent acquisition of Medway Galvanizing, which contributed 4% of the volume increase, has been fully integrated and is performing ahead of expectations, H&S said.
The group's preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2013 will be published in March 2014.
The stock was trading at 517.50 pence Thursday morning, up 7.00 pence or 1.4%.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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