4th Dec 2018 09:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Victrex PLC on Tuesday declared a special dividend, along with a final ordinary payout, after posting a rise in annual profit on the back of broad-based volume growth within all its geographic markets.
The FTSE 250-listed polymer products manufacturer also said it has stockpiled eight weeks of finished goods in mainland Europe and China and some additional raw material stocks in the UK to avoid trading disruptions from Brexit. It estimates inventories will exceed GBP80 million in its 2019 financial year, up from GBP69.3 million in the year just ended.
Victrex warned that "no deal" Brexit agreement could lead to increased costs due to application of duties to the import of raw materials and on the export of finished goods. Some mitigation of these increased costs will result from weakening of the pound in the first year following the UK's exit from the EU, due in March.
Shares in the company were trading 1.7% higher at 2,556.00 pence each Tuesday morning.
Victrex declared a 82.68 pence per share special divided and a final dividend of 59.56p, giving a total payout for the 2018 financial year of 142.24p, up 17% from 121.80p in total paid a year ago.
Pretax profit for the financial year that ended in September was GBP127.5 million, up from GBP111.0 million the year before, on revenue of GBP326.0 million and GBP290.2 million, respectively.
Sales volume increased 10% to 4,407 tonnes from 3,992 tonnes the year before. Margins improved to 63.8% from 63.3%.
"For 2019, our expectation is for continued momentum in our core polymer business and milestones in our mega-programmes. We expect to make good progress on a constant currency basis; however, adverse currency, no expected volumes in Consumer Electronics and recent market softness in Automotive may hold back our ability to substantially improve on our overall 2018 performance, with these headwinds falling mainly in the first half," said Chief Executive Jakob Sigurdsson.
"A better second half, compared to the prior year, is our current assessment and with strong structural growth opportunities and a healthy new product pipeline, we continue to be well-placed for the medium and long term," Sigurdsson added.
Related Shares:
Victrex