LONDON (Alliance News) - Johnson Matthey PLC Thursday said its pretax profit jumped 12% in its first half as increased sales, helped by new European legislation, led to results exceeding company expectations.
The FTSE 100 precious metals and speciality chemicals company said its pretax profit jumped up to GBP202.1 million for the six months ended September 30 from GBP180.1 million the previous year.
The company said its sales increased 31% to GBP6.41 billion from GBP4.89 billion as the company's emission control technologies, process technologies and fine chemicals divisions all achieved significant sales increases.
The company's emission control technologies division achieved a sales increase of 13%, benefiting from growth in sales across all regions, particularly in Europe for heavy-duty diesel vehicle catalysts, ahead of the new Euro VI legislation which comes fully into force from January 1 2014.
Johnson Matthey increased its interim dividend 10% to 17.0 pence.
The company warned that arrangements with Anglo American Platinum Limited that expire on December 31 will impact its fourth-quarter profitability but said that tighter environmental rules on European trucks should offset these losses.
Johnson Matthey shares were up 3.4% to 3,200.40 pence, putting it top of the FTSE 100 movers in early trading Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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Johnson Matthey (JMAT)