6th Nov 2018 08:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Molten metal flow engineering firm Vesuvius PLC said Tuesday it expects full-year profit to grow in line with expectations following a "strong performance" across all its businesses in the third quarter.
For the three months ended September, the FTSE 250-listed firm reported a "strong performance" across all its business units and across all the geographies in which it operates.
The firm was helped by continued growth in steel production. During the period, global steel production - excluding China - rose 2.6% on the year prior. Including China, steel production increased 4.3%.
Vesuvius emphasised that its sales volume growth in the three months "continued to outperform underlying market growth." This combined with its ongoing restructuring programme meant the firm expected to improve its profitability as well.
Looking to the full year, trading profit - or earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation - is expected to be "in line" with current consensus market expectations of GBP195 million.
In 2017, Vesuvius reported GBP165.5 million trading profit on revenue of GBP1.68 billion. Pretax profit stood at GBP97.1 million.
This profit improvement was despite the currency headwind having increased during the period compared to the first half of the year. Without the stiffer currency headwind, expected full year trading profit would have been around 5% higher than its current forecasts. This implies around GBP205 million.
The third quarter also saw Vesuvius continue to reduce leverage levels. This was helped by "strong" cash flow and "incremental improvements" in working capital needs.
Shares in Vesuvius were trading flat at 552.50 pence on Tuesday.
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