29th Jul 2021 14:51
(Alliance News) - Spectris PLC on Thursday swung to a first half profit and increased its dividend as the company enters the second half with "good momentum."
Shares in Spectris were up 4.0% to 3,570.00 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.
Pretax profit for the six months ended June 30 was GBP187 million, swinging year-on-year from a loss of GBP65.5 million.
The Egham, England-based precision instrumentation and controls supplier posted revenue of GBP601.8 million, up 0.5% from GBP599.0 million.
"The last two years have been characterised by restructuring, cost reduction, and investment for future growth, with less reliance on the macro-economy. With a much brighter macro environment, and many of our end markets recovering strongly, we are now benefiting from the higher quality of the retained businesses within our portfolio, our profit improvement programme and our lower cost base," the firm said.
Spectris declared an interim dividend of 23.0 pence per share, up 5.0% from the 21.9 pence paid a year prior.
"Spectris is emerging from the pandemic a less complex, more focused, leaner and stronger business...We expect the recovery to continue through the remainder of the year and we are also benefiting from our investment in innovation, enhancing our customer offering through our latest product and service launches. We anticipate LFL sales growth for the full year to be in the range of 10-12%," said Chief Executive Andrew Heath.
While further Covid-19-related disruption, inflationary pressures and supply chain constraints may occur, Spectris said its "continuing strong order intake provides good momentum going into the second half of the year, giving us confidence for the full year performance."
By Amrit Sahota; newsroom@alliancenews.com
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