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(Alliance News) - Medical equipment company Smith & Nephew PLC on Thursday reported higher revenue and a return to profit for the first half of its financial year.
Hertfordshire, England based Smith & Nephew reported a pretax profit of USD223 million in the six months that ended July 3, compared to a USD34 million loss a year prior.
Trading profit more than doubled to USD459 million from USD172 million, on revenue which rose 28% year-on-year to USD2.60 billion from USD2.04 billion.
Shares in Smith & Nephew were trading down 7.9% at 1,439.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
The FTSE 100-listed manufacturer issued an interim dividend of 14.4 US cents, in-line with a year before.
For the full-year, the company maintained an annual underlying revenue growth outlook of between 10% and 13% and trading profit margin guidance of 18% to 19%.
Current guidance assumes surgery volumes are largely unconstrained by the pandemic in second half of 2021.
Chief Executive Roland Diggelmann said: "Looking ahead, we believe we are well positioned to deliver on our guidance for this year. We also remain focused on setting ourselves up for sustainable success in the medium-term, prioritising revenue growth from our [research and development] pipeline, unlocking further value from acquisitions, and driving commercial and operational excellence."
By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com
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