Johnson Matthey Share News (JMAT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Johnson Matthey PLC Wednesday said it remains on track to deliver full financial year results that will meet expectations after reporting a small drop in sales during the third quarter as markets remain challenging for some of its divisions.

The speciality chemical company said group sales in the three months to the end of December totalled GBP736.0 million, representing a small 1% drop from the GBP745.0 million in sales reported a year earlier.

Although overall sales fell year-on-year, sales from continuing businesses were up 3% year-on-year.

The Emission Control Technologies division, by far Johnson Matthey's biggest earner, reported sales of GBP459.0 million in the quarter, compared to GBP435.0 million a year earlier, whilst the Process Technology division saw sales fall to GBP119.0 million from GBP134.0 million a year earlier.

The Precious Metal Products division registered third quarter sales of GBP76.0 million compared to GBP92.0 million a year ago. whilst the Fine Chemicals unit experienced a drop in sales to GBP57.0 million from GBP73.0 million. The other segment, the New Businesses division, saw sales double to GBP46.0 million from only GBP23.0 million.

"Emission Control Technologies performed well with sales growth across all regions and New Businesses continued to make good progress. However, the difficult trading environments in both Process Technologies and Precious Metal Products, which we noted in our half year announcement in November, persisted in the period," Johnson Matthey said.

Moving forward, the company said it remains on track to deliver results in line with expectations for the full year to end March, but warned the Process Technologies and Precious Metal Products divisions will continue to battle challenging market conditions.

"Looking ahead, the challenging macroeconomic conditions, which have worsened slightly since our half year results in November, are expected to limit the group's short term growth opportunities. The long term structural growth drivers for the group's technologies remain robust and Johnson Matthey is well placed to create value as they develop," said Johnson Matthey.

By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance

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