26th Feb 2016 07:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Engineer IMI PLC on Friday said its pretax profit and revenue fell in 2015, in line with the profit warning the group issued earlier in the year as it contended with tough markets.
The FTSE 250-listed engineer, which makes flow and fluid control products and heating and cooling systems, said its pretax profit fell 34% to GBP163.0 million from GBP246.0 million a year earlier, as revenue declined 7.0% to GBP1.58 billion from GBP1.69 billion.
Organic revenue fell 5.0%, the group's operating margin shrank to 15.4% from 17.7%, and it took a hit from currency translation weakness, it said. The economic slowdown in China and recessionary environment in Brazil hit the group's Critical Engineering and Precision Engineering divisions, while the whole business suffered from soft industrial markets worldwide.
IMI expects the tough conditions in its markets to continue in the first half and said margins are likely to decline further before some improvement is seen in the second half of 2016 as the benefits of its restructuring plans flow through.
On the expectation of improvements on the horizon, the group said it will hike its final dividend slightly to 24.5 pence from 24.0p, taking its total dividend up to 38.4p from 37.6p.
"We made steady progress on a number of fronts despite tough trading conditions in many of our markets. Our financial results were broadly in line with market expectations and we made substantial progress across a range of our strategic initiatives which have improved our operational performance and enhanced our market competitiveness," said Mark Selway, IMI's chief executive.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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