9th Dec 2020 09:28
(Alliance News) - Victrex PLC on Wednesday reported a resilient financial position with strong long-term growth in the pipeline in spite of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Lancashire-based polymer supplier's pretax profit for its 2020 financial year was down 39% to GBP63.5 million, compared to GBP104.7 million the year prior.
Victrex reported a 10% decrease in group revenue for the year to GBP266.0 million from GBP294.0 million and group sales volume fell 7% to 3,492 tonnes from 3,751 tonnes. The company said these decreases were a result of the impact of an end-market weakness during the second half of the financial year.
After deferring its interim dividend earlier this year, Victrex declared a total dividend of 46.14 pence, which was down 23% from 59.56 pence year-on-year.
Chief Executive Jakob Sigurdsson said: "Whilst we will start to benefit from the actions we have taken on costs, some impact on margin will remain due to production volume being lower than sales volume and inventory unwind post Brexit. Consequently, our initial assumptions are that delivering a performance which improves on financial 2020 will be contingent on a better macro and end market environment in the second half of our 2021 financial year."
The company said it has seen a solid start to its 2021 fianancial year.
"Whilst several end-markets are seeing some incremental improvement, overall performance remains subdued and we expect some softness to continue through the first half, versus the prior year, with the potential for uncertainty in order patterns," it added.
Shares in Victrex were down 0.5% at 2,102.00 pence in London on Wednesday.
By Zoe Wickens; [email protected]
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