Hill & Smith Regulatory News (HILS)

24 May 2022

Hill & Smith Holdings PLC

Trading Update

Hill & Smith Holdings PLC ("the Group"), the international group creating sustainable infrastructure and safe transport through innovation, provides a trading update for the four month period ("the period") to 30 April 2022, ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held later today.

Group Performance

Trading during the period has been positive, with reported revenue 9% ahead of last year, driven by pricing actions and robust levels of demand across the portfolio.

The Galvanizing division delivered a strong performance in the period, with good levels of organic revenue and profit growth across all three regions. The growth reflects the successful actions taken to offset input cost inflation, a strategic focus on higher margin customers and a modest increase in total volumes.

Demand across Utilities continued to be buoyant, with strong organic revenue growth against robust 2021 comparators. While margins were impacted by product mix in US composites, the division delivered good levels of organic profit growth in the period. 

In Roads & Security, as expected, utilisation of the UK temporary safety barrier fleet was lower than last year, however this is expected to increase in the second half of the year as new RIS2 strategic road upgrade schemes commence. In the US, demand for tested roadside safety products remains strong. At the end of April 2022, we successfully completed the disposal of our Sweden roads rental division and are assessing options for the remaining parts of this business.

Outlook

We continue to actively manage the supply chain and inflationary headwinds and, while mindful of the wider macroeconomic uncertainty, the Group remains on track to deliver full year 2022 underlying operating profit in line with market expectations^. We remain positive on the medium to longer term outlook, supported by strong market growth drivers for both sustainable infrastructure and safe transport.

Financial Calendar

The Group's interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2022 are scheduled to be announced on 3 August 2022. 

The Group will be holding a Capital Markets Day on 21 September 2022 in London. Please contact cmd@hsholdings.com for further details.

^ The current company compiled analyst consensus expectation for FY22 is for underlying operating profit of £92.0m.

Cautionary Statement

This announcement contains forward looking statements which are made in good faith based on the information available at the time of its approval. It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable but they may be affected by a number of risks and uncertainties that are inherent in any forward looking statement which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Nothing in this document should be regarded as a profit forecast nor should it be taken to mean that earnings per share of Hill & Smith in the year ending 31 December 2022, or in future years, will necessarily match or exceed the Group's historical earnings per share.

For further information, please contact:

Hill & Smith Holdings PLC

Paul Simmons, Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0)121 704 7434

Hannah Nichols, Chief Financial Officer

MHP Communications

Andrew Jaques/Rachel Farrington/Catherine Chapman Tel: +44 (0)20 3128 8613

Notes to Editors

Hill & Smith Holdings PLC creates sustainable infrastructure and safe transport through innovation. The Group employs c.4,400 people worldwide with the majority employed by its autonomous, agile, customer focussed operating businesses based in the UK, USA, France, Sweden, India and Australia. It has a head office in the UK and it is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: HILS.L).

The Group's operating businesses are organised into three divisions:

Roads & Security: supplying products and services to support road and highway infrastructure including temporary and permanent road safety barriers, renewable energy lighting and power solutions, Intelligent Traffic Solutions, street lighting columns and bridge parapets. The security portfolio includes hostile vehicle mitigation solutions, high security fencing and automated gate solutions.

Utilities: supplying engineered steel and composite solutions with low embodied energy for a wide range of infrastructure markets including energy generation and distribution, marine, rail and housing. The division also supplies engineered pipe supports for the water, power and liquid natural gas markets and seismic protection solutions.

Galvanizing Services: dramatically increasing the sustainability and maintenance free life of steel products including structural steel work, lighting, bridges, agricultural and other products for the industrial and infrastructure markets.