(Alliance News) - Spectris PLC reported profit boost and rise in sales in its half year, and upgraded its guidance for its financial year.
Spectris is a London-based company providing high-tech instruments, test equipment and software for industrial applications.
Spectris said in its six months ended June 30 that pretax profit was up 64% to GBP68.5 million from GBP41.8 million the year before.
Sales increased by 23% to GBP702.5 million from GBP570.2 million, which Spectris said was from volume growth, market share gains and pricing.
Chief Executive Andrew Heath said: "We have good momentum in the business and I am delighted to see the progress we are making with our strategy for sustainable growth."
The company swung to net cash of GBP214.3 million on June 30, compared to a net debt position of GBP98.3 million at the same point last year; a GBP312.6 million year-on-year increase in net cash.
Spectris declared an interim dividend of 25.3 pence per share, up 5.0% to 24.1p per share the year before.
"While we remain vigilant and alert to the broader macro environment, the strong first half performance and strength of our order book means we are upgrading our guidance for the full year," said Chief Executive Heath.
It now expects organic sales growth for the full year to be ahead of its previous guidance of 6% to 7%. Additionally, it expects "strong progress" on margins, with full-year adjusted operating profit to be in a range of GBP250 million to GBP265 million, which would constitute "strong double-digit growth" from the prior year.
"We continue to drive operational excellence to reduce emissions, improve productivity and efficiency in-line with our ambition to be a leading sustainable, compound-growth business."
Shares in Spectris fell by 0.7% at 3,494.00p in London on Monday morning.
By Will Neill, Alliance News reporter
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Spectris (SXS)