3rd Mar 2016 08:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Molten metal flow engineering company Vesuvius PLC on Thursday said profit and revenue sank in 2015 as the group was hit by slowing markets.
The FTSE 250-listed company said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP77.4 million, compared to GBP111.2 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to GBP1.32 billion from GBP1.44 billion.
Vesuvius said the declines were in line with its previous guidance, hit by weakness in the global steel and foundry markets, though some of the pressure was mitigated by margin improvements in the foundry business.
The group is undergoing a restructuring to address the issues it faces and expects to deliver around GBP20.0 million in annual savings by the end of 2017. It managed to deliver GBP8.8 million in savings in 2015.
Vesuvius will pay a final dividend of 11.125 pence per share, taking its total dividend to 16.275p, up from 16.125p.
"These results reflect the substantial headwinds that we have faced in our key end-markets of steel and foundry. We have been able to minimise the impact on our margins due to a continued focus on self-help measures and our substantial restructuring programme launched in response to the permanent structural changes in the end-markets," said Francois Wanecq, Vesuvius' chief executive.
"Despite the current challenges, our strategy for longer-term profitable growth remains unchanged and, in this context, we have made encouraging progress in 2015, strengthening our competitive position in the strategically important markets of China, India and South America through increasing penetration of our value added products, and continuing to develop our Technical Services offering," he added.
Shares in Vesuvius were up 4.6% at 338.90 pence Thursday morning, shortly after market open.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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