21st Oct 2019 10:05
(Alliance News) - Industrial fastenings firm Trifast PLC said Monday its first half revenue and margins were under pressure as challenging market conditions continued to pressure volumes, but the firm remains confident and on the look-out for further acquisitions.
Shares in Trifast were 17% lower at 160.54 pence in London on Monday.
For the six months ended September, the firm has continued to experience a "challenging market environment" with a number of its end sectors remaining "weak." Consequently, volumes have reduced which has led to revenue and margins also suffering.
In response, Trifast now expects underlying pretax profit for the year ending March 2020 to be around GBP22 million.
For the year ended March 2019, Trifast reported GBP23.6 million in underlying pretax profit on revenue of GBP209.1 million.
"Notwithstanding the current high levels of uncertainty, we are pleased to report that our pipeline of new wins remains reassuringly solid and activity levels around the group continue to be encouraging across all sectors," Trifast said in a statement. "Both our USA region and our latest UK acquisition, PTS, have continued to perform exceptionally well in the first half of the year, comfortably delivering double digit revenue growth."
In April, Trifast acquired stainless steel fastenings supplier Precision Technology Supplies Ltd for up to GBP11.0 million.
"As ever, the search for the next acquisition remains an important objective for us," Trifast added. "In fact, in a less certain world we are starting to see the number of potential M&A opportunities increase."
With regards Brexit, Trifast emphasised both the operational and financial impact of the UK leaving the EU would be "manageable" in the short term. Longer term, however, the impacts on the wider UK economy remains "less easy to predict."
"Despite the short-term end market weaknesses and macroeconomic uncertainty, the strong long-term fundamentals of our business model and strategy remain unchanged," Trifast concluded.
By Ahren Lester; [email protected]
Copyright 2019 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Trifast