8th Aug 2018 08:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC on Wednesday reported an increase in interim profit and revenue, resulting in a hike to its dividend.
The FTSE 250-listed steam systems manufacturer increased its pretax profit 21% in the six months ended June to GBP106.8 million from GBP88.5 million.
Revenue was up 28% to GBP547.6 million from GBP428.6 million the year before, with 7% organic growth.
The company's sales increased due to the additional four months of revenue from recent acquisitions Gestra and Chromalox, acquired in May and July 2017, respectively.
The two businesses added 24% to sales and 16% to profit.
Spirax-Sarco's profit increase was also helped by a larger than expected devaluation of the Argentinian peso.
The company declared an interim dividend of 29.0 pence per share, up 14% from the 25.5p paid last year.
Spirax-Sarco is expecting a "relatively stable" macroeconomic environment in the second half with "slightly" weaker global industrial production growth - particularly in Europe, China and Latin America.
The company highlighted its markets remain "strongly influenced" by industrial growth rates.
Spirax-Sarco expects its organic growth to slow in the second half due to a stronger comparable period.
The company's strong performance in the first half was in line with expectations, meaning its full year guidance remains unchanged.
Chief Executive Nicholas Anderson said: "We are very pleased to report strong organic sales growth of 7% in the first half, ahead of global industrial production growth, and organic operating profit growth of 15%. We have seen strong organic sales growth in both the Steam Specialties division and Watson-Marlow, reflecting the benefits of the successful implementation of our strategy.
"In addition, integration of the two significant acquisitions we made in 2017, Gestra and Chromalox, is progressing to schedule and their overall performance continues to be in line with our acquisition plans."
Shares in Spirax-Sarco Engineering were up 2.0% Wednesday morning at 6,885.00 pence each.
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