28th Jul 2016 08:05
LONDON (Alliance News) - Precision instruments and controls maker Spectris PLC on Thursday reported a fall in interim profit and said it has completed the acquisition of DISCOM Elektronische Systeme und Komponenten GmbH in Germany.
FTSE 250-listed Spectris said it made a GBP41.0 million pretax profit in the half-year to the end of June, down 17% from the GBP49.2 million made a year prior, due to higher acquisition and finance costs.
Sales grew 3.2% to GBP581.4 million from GBP563.2 million, but fell 1.7% in constant currencies. The growth was driven by currency benefits and contributions from acquisitions which offset lower like-for-like volumes amid a soft industrial market.
Spectris declared an interim dividend of 18.0 pence, up 4.0% from 17.3p a year before.
"Trading conditions in the period continued to be challenging, particularly in our In-line Instrumentation and Industrial Controls segments, both of which were impacted by weak global industrial demand," said Chief Executive John O'Higgins.
"Given the challenging environment, we remain focussed on self-help actions to better align cost growth to sales growth, and have recently commenced a comprehensive group-wide productivity improvement programme to augment the measures previously announced," he added.
In a separate statement, Spectris added it has agreed to pay EUR15.8 million to buy privately-owned German acoustical and vibration quality analysis tools provider DISCOM. Spectris said the business will be integrated into its Bruel & Kjaer Sound & Vibration unit.
Spectris shares were up 0.4% to 1,907.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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