Spirax-Sarco Interim Profit Pulled Back By Costs And Currency Effects

LONDON (Alliance News) - Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC on Wednesday said currency effects dragged down its pretax profit and revenue in the first half, along with costs associated with the start-up of its business in India and with the restructuring of its UK operations.

The company, which makes steam management systems and peristaltic pumps, said pretax profit in the first half was down by 10% to GBP57.3 million from GBP63.5 million a year earlier, primarily due to the GBP8.2 million in exceptional costs it booked in the half from the start-up of its business in India and from the job cuts it made in the UK.

A year earlier Spirax-Sarco booked one-off costs of GBP2.9 million, so stripping out both of those one-off costs, pretax profit in the half was only down to GBP65.5 million from GBP63.3 million.

Revenue was broadly flat in the half, at GBP320.0 million against GBP319.2 million, as currency translation effects dragged back Spirax-Sarco's 3% organic sales growth in the half, driven by strong growth in the Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology division.

The company said it will pay an interim dividend of 20.8 pence per share, up from 19.5p per share a year earlier.

"We anticipate that our markets will remain challenging, especially in emerging economies, but continue to expect modest market improvements in Europe and North America during the second half of this year and remain focused on our strategic priorities to generate our own growth," said Chief Executive Nicholas Anderson.

"We have a robust and resilient business model and, assuming no unexpected deterioration in our markets, the board remains confident that the group will make progress in 2015," Anderson added.

By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Spirax-Sarco