Scapa likely to beat expectations as second half improves

Full year results should be better than expectations at adhesives and bonding specialist Scapa, the company boasted on Thursday.The AIM-listed group, which serves diverse markets including healthcare, industrial and electronics, said progress reported in its interim results had continued through to an even stronger second half.As a result, Scapa's profits for the full year before exceptional items, amortisation of intangible assets and legacy pensions costs and finance charges were anticipated to be "slightly ahead of expectations". It said healthy cash flow in the period ensured it ended the year with net cash of £5.3m, which was also better than expectations.House broker Numis noted that, with finals will be published on May 28th, this was a "short but sweet" update as Scapa management were keeping their powder dry until then. "The only points we would make at this stage are that: FX (foreign exchange) is likely to have been a minor negative last full year; and we believe that successful working capital controls were instrumental in the good net cashresult." Scapa's share price was up 1.85p at 13:05 on Thursday. OH